of the United States of 'North America. 131. 



on the east and bituminous on the west, we may observe an 

 analogy to the coal deposits in South Wales, where the eastern 

 portions are bituminous and the western anthracitous ; and 

 again with those in Ireland, where the northern deposits are 

 bituminous and the southern anthracitous. But both the 

 Welsh and the Irish coal fields belong to the great carboni- 

 ferous order, and I anticipate that such also will be admitted 

 to be the case with respect to the Pennsylvanian, which point 

 indeed, in reference to the north-eastern parts of that state, ap- 

 pears to me fully established by Professor Eaton. The mere 

 quality of coal, as being anthracitous, cannot alone be consi- 

 dered a decisive criterion of its antiquity, though so conceived 

 by some geologists. 



In the extensive tracts of Pennsylvania alone, it must neces- 

 sarily take time fully to develop all its mineral relations, par- 

 ticularly in districts that may prove of an intricate nature. 

 From the labours of Mr. R. C. Taylor, specially devoted to 

 these researches, we may expect very valuable information, 

 not only in respect of the rocks of the great carboniferous 

 order, but of those of the transition system : and it will be a 

 subject of high interest to have it shown to what extent the 

 rocks of the latter epoch in the United States may correspond 

 with the Silurian or Cambrian divisions of the series so ably 

 developed by the assiduous labours of Mi". Murchison and 

 Professor Sedgwick in England and Wales, or with the trans- 

 ition rocks of Somerset and Devon under the investigation of 

 Mr. De la Beche, or with those of Ireland, which I have en- 

 deavoured to describe. In such a comparison it is probable 

 that more than one parallel may be drawn, after a careful ex- 

 amination of the transition tracts of the United States. 



As it does not enter into my present view to consider the 

 slight layers of anthracite that are met with in transition clay 

 slate on the river Hudson, or the thicker beds ascribed to that 

 aera that occur in New England, I would refer for detailed 

 information on this subject in particular to the very valuable 

 work of Professor Hitchcock on the Geology of the State of 

 Massachusetts. 



I shall conclude with the general remai'k that if the land of 

 the United States be rich in the vegetable productions of the 

 warm and temperate zones of the earth, it is no less so in the 

 abundance and variety of its mineral stores, of which the prin- 

 cipal are its inexhaustible deposits of coal and iron, which may 

 be considered as the mainsprings of arts and manufactures. 

 In the possession of such treasures, combined with the active 

 spirit engendered by free institutions, and the natural and 

 Q2 



