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5 876 Mr. Lyell on the Coal Field of Tuscaloosa, Ala. 
_. the beds are highly inclined, and occasionally vertical, and the 
ei re productive coal measures occur on both sides, their strata having 
~ a slight dip, and being in some places nearly horizontal. ‘These 
i ws will best be explained by the annexed diagram. 
. 
Coal Fields of Alabama. 
a 4 mr 
3 an 5 8. E. 
References.—a, Warrior river ; b, Rook’s and Jones’ valley ; ¢, Cahawba river. 
, Coal measures ; 2, Grit; 3, Limestone and Chert; 4, Grit; 5, Coal measures. 
Length of section, 50 miles. 
On the northern confines of the State of Alabama, there is a 
third coal field, that of the Tennessee valley, which is separated 
from the two former by a broad but low chain of mountains, 
which run nearly éast and west, and intervene between the Ten- 
nessee and the sources of the Warrior and Cahawba rivers. 
These mountains, according to Prof. Brumby, consist of strata, 
like those before described as occurring immediately below the 
productive coal measures between the Warrior and Cahawba 
rivers, and consisting chiefly of quartzose grit and limestone. I 
could not ascertain whether this coal of northern Alabama, which 
runs about 100 miles east and west, along the Tennessee River, 
is actually continuous with the southeastern coal measures of 
the Apalachians, in the State of Tennessee, but it seems highly 
probable that they are united. 
A careful comparison of the fossil plants of the Alabama coal 
field, which I have collected myself, or which have been liberally 
presented to me by Prof. Brumby, with those of the more north- 
ern coal fields, and of Europe, will be a subject of peculiar i- 
terest, as they are situated in lat. 33° 10’ north, and constitute, if 
I mistake not, the extreme southern limit to which the peculiar 
vegetation of the ancient carboniferous era has yet been trac 
(in the northern hemisphere,) whether on the western or easter 
side of the Atlantic. 
