COAL ROCKS OF EASTERN VIRGINIA. 299 



of American Geology, Maclure, founded his reference of this 

 remarkable series of grits and carbonaceous strata, to the period 

 of the old red sandstone. More recently, Mr. R. C. Taylor, in an 

 interesting paper relating to this region, in the Transactions of the 

 Geological Society of Pennsylvania, expresses himself as " rather 

 inclined to assign this independent coal formation to the transition 

 carboniferous deposits, than to the secondary class," on the ground 

 of the absence of any "analogy" between it and the latter, 

 "throughout the whole series of superincumbent strata." 



The further explorations in this region, made in the course of 

 the Geological Survey of the State, aided by new and extended 

 mining operations, having brought to light, more clearly than be- 

 fore, many interesting organic remains, chiefly of vegetable origin, 

 have afforded me the opportunity of accumulating important data 

 for determining the epoch of this isolated and remarkable coal 

 formation. In the absence of such a guide, and judging by litho- 

 logical indications alone, perhaps no more probable conclusion 

 would have been reached on this subject, than that of the able 

 geologists whose names have just been mentioned. 



These vegetable remains, as a groifp, bear a strildng resem- 

 blance to those which accompany the Oolite coal of Brora, 

 Whitby, and other European localities. Some of them, as, 

 Eqniselum columnare, Calamites arcnacetts, Pecopteris Whitbi- 

 cnsis, Pecopteris Mimsteriana and Lycopodites uncifolius, are, I 

 think, specifically the same with the European fossils, while the 

 rest, among which are Taniopteris magnifolia, an unnamed 

 Pecopteris, and two or perhaps three species of Zamites, are very 

 closely allied to certain species of the same genera, found in con- 

 nection with the Oolite coal of Yorkshire, Sunderlandshire, and 

 other places in Europe. 



The most abundant of these remains are, the Equisetnm co- 

 lumnare, also said to exist in great profusion at Brora and Whitby; 

 a large species of Zamites ? hereafter to be noticed ; and a mag- 

 nificent Tccniopteris, ( T. magnifolia,) very closely analogous to 

 T. vittata and T. scitaminea of the Yorkshire and Sunderland- 

 shire formation. These four being found in vast numbers imme- 

 diately upon, and interlaminated with the coal, where it is slaty, 



