COAL ROCKS OF EASTERN VIRGINIA. 



815 



The fossil to which this appears to bear most analogy, is the 

 Zamites Whithiensis of Sternberg; bvit the leaflets of the Virginia 

 plant are much smaller, more delicate, and of a narrower form, 

 and the nervm'es much more minute. 



Zamites. 



One of the most abundant of all the fossil relics found in the 

 dark-colored slates a short distance above the coal, and some- 

 times interlaminated with the upper part of the seam, consists 

 of long flat impressions, covered mth straight parallel ribs or 

 veins from thirty to forty to the inch. These impressions lie 

 closely upon each other, between the parallel laminae of the slate, 

 and appear to be of extreme thinness. The great distance to 

 which the parallel ribs may be traced, without any indications of 

 an articulation, and the close proximity of the impressions, w^ould 

 seem to exclude the supposition of their being compressed stems 

 of a Calamite, while their narrowness and nearly uniform width, 

 and some obscure appearances of attachment to a midrib, incline 

 me to refer them to some very large Cycadeons plant. 



The above-described fossils comprise the more important, 

 though not all of the vegetable remains which I have yet been able 

 to procure in a state of sufficient preservation to be of much 

 interest for purposes of comparison. Further explorations in 

 which I am now engaged, will, it is hoped, add many new ones 

 to the list, and enable me clearly to determine the characters of 

 a number of interesting, but as yet obscure plants, of which I 

 now have specimens. 



Of animal remains, the only specimens, thus far met with, are 

 a single species of fish, and the teeth of what was probably a 

 Saurian. The former, which has been accurately described by 

 Mr. Redfield, is referred by him to his new genus Catopteriis, 

 under the title of Catopterus macniriis.* Its remains are met 

 with profusely, though seldom in good preservation, in the black 

 bituminous slates and lead-colored argillaceous sandstones, im- 



* See American Journal of Science, for 1841, vol. 41. p. 27, 



