64 GEOLOGY — COAL OF BELLINGIIAM BAY. 



fracture, somewhat resembling Wigan cannel, upon exposure to the air for any length of time 

 it cracks up into a thousand cubical fragments. It burns freely, producing a bright cheerful 

 blaze and considerable heat, but is more flashy, and has far less heating power than the best 

 bituminous coals. 



A proximate analysis gives me for its composition the following formulae : 



Fixed carbon 46.54 



Volatile matter 50.2T 



Ashes 3.19 



Coke, 49.73, dark, friable, and of but little value. The amount of gas is large, but of low 

 illuminating power. This coal apparently contains very little bi. sulph., iron, or other inju- 

 rious impurities, and is extensively used in San Francisco, and was selling, at the time of our 

 visit, at $22 per ton, in small quantities, but could be bought, by the cargo, at $16 to $18 per 

 ton. 



COAL OF BELLINGHAM BAY, W. T. 



Geological position. — This coal is found interstratified with sandstones and shales on the 

 shores of Bellingham bay. Lieut. W. P. Trowbridge, U. S. A., while superintending the 

 construction of lightdiouses on that part of the coast, made a careful measurement of the strata 

 of the section in which the beds of coal are exposed, of which the results have been published 

 in the geological report of Mr. W. P. Blake, contained in vol. V, U. S. P. R. R. Reports. 



The section exposed, when measured by Lieut. Trowbridge, consisted of about 2,000 feet of 

 shales, sandstones, and coal, of which the coal j>resented the enormous aggregate of 110 feet. 

 It is possible, however, that the series is, in part, composed of repetitions of the same mem- 

 bers, as the strata are inclined at a high angle, and are much convoluted and disturbed in all 

 that region. 



Many of the shales are fossiliferous, and vegetable impressions are particularly abundant. 

 These consist, for the most part, of the impressions of dicotyledonous leaves, and are similar in 

 general character ; and some of them specifically identical with those collected on Frazer's 

 river by the United States Exploring Expedition, under Capt. Charles Wilkes. Among them 

 are species of Platanus, Acer, Alnus, dec, as yet undescribed. There is also a Taxus, or Taxo- 

 dium, and a Juniperus. It is probable that all the dicotyledonous species there represented are 

 extinct. The coniferae may not be so. A sufficient number of well marked specimens has, 

 however, not yet been collected to determine this question. 



The flora of the coal deposits of Bellingham bay is remarkably like that of the lignite beds 

 of the upper Missouri, the genera being nearly all represented on the Missouri, and some of the 

 species are identical. 



The lignite beds of the Missouri are undoubtedly Miocene, and it is very difficult to distin- 

 guish some of the species found in them from those of the Miocenes of Austria and of the Island 

 of Mull. 



The strata exposed on Bellingham bay, both in their lithological character and their fossils, 

 are closely related to the sandstones and shales of the Columbia and Coose bay, and are, pro- 

 bably, portions of the great San Francisco group, which forms the most striking feature of the 

 geology of the coast mountains. 



The mines at Bellingham bay were among the first opened on the western coast, and have 

 already furnished a large quantity of coal for the San Francisco market. 



