Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. l75 
Prof. Beck read the title of a paper “ on some T'rappean miner- 
als and the general geological conclusions to be drawn from their 
history.” . 
The committee on the time of meeting for 1843, reported the 
fourth Wednesday of April next, which was accepted. 
Prof. W. B. Rogers read a paper “on the Age of the Coal 
Rocks of eastern Virginia.” He described these strata as occu- 
pying parts of Chesterfield, Powhatan, Amelia, Henrico, and 
Goochland counties, and lying in basins of granite, the prineipal 
coal seam being separated by only a few feet from the floor of 
primary rock. In some places near the margin of the field, where 
alone they have been explored, the thickness of these coal rocks 
is upwards of eight hundred feet, but towards the centre of the 
principal basin it is probably somewhat greater. Throughout 
much of this depth they consist of coarse grits, often composed 
of the materials of granite so little worn as to present the aspect 
of this rock in adecomposing state. In this paper Prof. R. shows, 
on the testimony of fossils, and especially the vegetable impres- 
sions found in the grits and slates associated with the coal, that 
these rocks instead of being as had been hitherto supposed of 
even older date than the great earboniferous formation of the 
west and of Europe, belong in fact to a much later period and 
correspond nearly if not accurately with the bottom of the oolite 
formation of Europe. The prevailing fossils are of the genera 
Equisetum, Teniopteus, and Cycadites or Pterophyllum, and 
either agree specifically or correspond nearly with those of the 
oolite coal of Brora and the equivalent beds at Whitby and other 
places. Prof. R. laid much stress on this determination as sup- 
plying one of the links in the geological series not hitherto dis- 
covered in this country, and as presenting a striking analogy with 
the abnormal development of the lower oolite in certain parts of 
Europe. At the conclusion of the paper, Prof. R. stated that 
from the fossils he has discovered in a particular division of the 
new red sandstone of Virginia, he expects ere long to be able 
confidently to announce the existence of beds in that formation 
corresponding to the Keuper in Europe. 
Prof. Wm. B. Rogers communicated a paper “on the Porous 
Anthracite or Natural Coke of Eastern Virginia.” In this paper 
Prof. R. investigates the cause of the peculiar texture and com- 
position of this material, and points out the forms of vegetation 
