9 
March 24th. 
President Newberry in the chair. Sixteen persons present. 
Pror. C. A. SEELY made some remarks upon an improved 
form of spectroscope invented by Prof. A. K. Eaton. 
The PRESIDENT gave a discussion of the “Coals and Lig- 
nites of the Western States and Territories,’* illustrated by 
a large suite of specimens from many localities, and with 
numerous analyses. 
Looking for a moment at the coals of the eastern states, it 
is familiarly known that in going eastward from the great 
mining centre of Pennsylvania, the coal becomes less bitu- 
minous, changing first to the hard anthracite of the Rhode 
Island mines, then into graphitic anthracite, and finally at 
Worcester, Mass., into an incombustible graphite. On the 
other hand, in going westward, the coal becomes increas- 
ingly bituminous, and maintains the latter character through 
out the great coal areas of the Mississippi basin. 
In the Far West, however, the coals are of different geolo- 
gical age from those of the eastern and central states, which 
are true Carboniferous. In the West are found only Trias- 
sic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary lignites, varying much in char- 
acter and value, but in some cases becoming true hard coals. 
The Triassic formation, as a whole, contains little carbona- 
ceous material; but to this general rule, there are some 
notable exceptions. Such are the valuable coal mines of 
Richmond and of North Carolina, and in the far West, those 
of Los Bronces in Sonora. In China, Prof. Pumpelly has 
shown that these Mesozoic coals are extensively developed, 
as they are also known to be on Vancouver's and Queen 
Charlotte’s Islands. At all these points, the paleontological 
evidence as to the age of the deposits is unquestionable. 
Cretaceous coals and lignites have an important develope- 
ment at many points in the far West. One of the most 
interesting is that near Santa Fé, in which a trap-dyke 
has cut through a bed of Cretaceous lignite, and altered it 
locally to a true anthracite. Many coals which have been 
thought by some observers to be Kocene, are in reality of 
Cretaceous age, as shown by unmistakeable animal remains. 
* The leading points of this paper are fully presented in the Annals, 
Vol, XI. 
