168 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



and care, for the purpose of presenting and preserving their finer 

 features. 



xVnd hence we conclude that in this rock, channeled out and made 

 ready for its reee])tion ages beforehand, and at the de])th of eight or 

 ten feet below its surface, this plant lived and died, pi'otected from 

 that hour to this by its high walls of massive rock. Can we conceive 

 of a fitter mausoleum for its reception and preservation than this, 

 and built by no human hand? 



And just as in the instance before, another denudation as exten- 

 sive as that which preceded it, has swept all the rock of the Coal 

 Measures away, so that today, with the exception of a few feet upon 

 its surface, the rocks here are just as they were at the close of the 

 Coal Measure period. 



This paper aims to bring out the following points: 



I. The fact of a fossil plant of the Coal Measures occurring in 

 and, most probably, far below the well recognized horizon of the 

 Hamilton. 



3. The thorough identification of the l)lue clay with that of the 

 Coal Measures. The probabilitj' of such relationship was favored 

 by the presence of the cast of a shell of Caiboniferous form (see 

 Hall's Geology of Iowa, Vol. J, p. 130). Its certainty may be con- 

 sidered established, as the fucoid is characteristic of the same great 

 era. 



3. The existence, in place, at LeClaire's (piarry, of the hard fos- 

 siliferous rock, as an extension of the same rock hitherto only found 

 at the quarry between Rock Island and Moliiie, and Cook's quarry. 



4. It suggests the possible origiii of wliat lias becTi kiKtwii as the 

 '•'Carb<miferous drift" in our vicinity. 



.Just as the far-famed obelisk, transplantiMJ on our shoi'es, speaks 

 to us of a ])ast civilization and art, so this ]ilant. a marvel of beauty, 

 coming to us from the far-off Coal Measures, gives us a faint glimpse 

 of the sculpturesque forms of life and grace that once floated in their 

 seas, ages and ages ago. 



March 25th — Regular Meeting. 



The President, Mr. J. D. Putnam, in the chair. Nine members 

 present. 



The following ])aper was jiresented: 



