i88i. 



73 



Trans. N. V. Ac. Set. 



its shape well, cutting like cheese. The color, when freshly cut, was a 

 yellowish-brown, but changed rapidly to a dark-brown, almost black, 

 in a few minutes. Upon drying, the color becomes a lighter or gray- 

 ish-brown. The rock below the ripe peat is a clayey sand. This is 

 somewhat impervious to water ; but it is likely that beneath it is a more 

 clayey bed which originally held the water and occasioned the swamp. 



In the midst of the ripe peat, termed muck in the letter above men- 

 tioned, there was found, at various times and at different places, in 

 excavating for the division walls, a substance resembling to the eye a 

 bright coal — anthracite if you please. This did not occur in beds or 

 layers, or in any apparent regular manner, but in irregular scattered or 

 branching masses. You will observe in these dried specimens how 

 intimately the coal-like matter and the ordinary peat are mingled. The 

 two kinds cannot be separated, and it is with difficulty that the dried 

 material can be gotten entirely pure for purposes of analysis. It shrinks 

 upon drying, to a greater degree than the unchanged peat. Masses 

 which I thought would afford fair-sized dry samples have nearly disap- 

 peared. The fresh material has been described as a tough jelly, which 

 is perhaps a fair description. It was somewhat elastic, like a mass of 

 soft india-rubber, but would break before bending greatly. I should 

 compare it to a very firm but brittle jelly. The fracture had the 

 lustre of a true coal, and in the dried state the resemblance is perfect. 

 Being found in the midst of an anthracite basin, unscientific people 

 naturally supposed from its associations that whatever bearings it 

 might have upon coal would relate to anihracite coal, not knowing, or 

 not remembering, that anthracite is a metamorphic coal. 



Mr. N. L. Britton, Geological assistant at the School of Mines, 

 New York, has made approximate analyses of this altered peat, from 

 material which I carefuly selected ; also of the peat contiguous to the 

 transformed matter (within the distance of an inch) ; and of the ripe 

 peat from a depth of 13 feet in another part of the excavation. The 

 analyses are of thoroughly and equally dried samples, and afford the 

 following percentages : 



1. Ripe Peat 



2. Peat adjacent to 3 



3. Transformed Peat 



4. Transformed Peat 



Moisture at 

 115° Cent. 



6.225 



3-775 

 11.350 



66.758 



Volatile 

 Matter. 



63.875 

 22.125 

 52.800 



Fixed 

 Carbon. 



4.625 



4.625 



24-725 



9.826 I 4.012 



Ash. 



25-275 

 69-475 

 II. 125 



19.404 



Number 4 is by the Pennsylvania State Chemist, as published in the 



