146 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



kill the trees, which became water logged and went to the bottom to be 

 made into coal, and that the rock which intervenes between the coal beds 

 is the mud brought into the lake by the river between the periods of 

 forest subsidence. 



I shall not stop now to dilate on the evidence in support of this theory 

 — to show how these ponds occur on the edge of the same formation in 

 •which the Pennsylvania coal was found ; how the coal was formed mostly 

 out of vegetation allied to these aquatic plants ; how the hemlock trees 

 which surround these ponds arc the remains of a former flora ; how the 

 direction of fallen trees in the coal beds is nearly uniform ; how " coal 

 pipes" are trees which remained standing when the forest went down ; 

 how the microscope has revealed the presence of coniferous trees during 

 the coal era ; how a climate no warmer than the present may have been 

 adequate to the existence of large floating aquatic plants of difi"erent 

 species from those now known; how marshes and bogs all indicate that the 

 process of filling in has been carried on from above downwards ; how peat, 

 lignite, bituminous coal, anthracite and plumbago, are manifestly allied to 

 each other ; how leaves of the ferns, remain longer iu water undecomposed, 

 than other foliage ; how stigmaria have proved to be roots instead of 

 leaves, and how the large swamps of the present time are inhabited by 

 allied species of evergreens. 



As to the economic value of Baisley's pond, muck or peat, T may say 

 in the absence of any knowledge derived from actual experiment, we may 

 presume a priori, that it will prove analogous to charcoal in its eflFect on 

 soils. 



The Doctor's remarks were accompanied by diagrams illustrating his 

 ideal section of Long Island, and as a step towards ascertaining the value 

 of salt water mud, he made some explmation of the structure and habits 

 of marine molusks, illustrated by a diagram of the common oyster, (ostrea 

 cdulis,) together with a dissection and demonstration of the heart, bran- 

 chial mouth, intestine veins, liver, abductor muscle, &c., of this shell-fish. 

 The heart may be seen to pulsate, in a living oyster, about thirty or forty 

 times to the minute. It consists of a single auricle and single ventricle, 

 devoted to the systematic circulation. 



T. W. Field. — I have used swamp muck as manure several years. I 

 always mix it with other materials, and I find this the grand necessity of 

 this as well as other manure. We do not divide it sufficiently. Used 

 alone, peat is of little value. The reason is, it does not decompose readi- 

 ly, and it is not sufficiently divided, and it contains tartaric and other 

 acids. I can grow more potatoes with peat mixed with animal manure, 

 than with the whole bulk in stable manure. A large number of farmers 

 on Long Island are troubled with clump-footed cabbage, particularly 

 ■where hog manure is used, or high manuring of other animal manures. I 

 escaped this disease this year, while all my neighbors are very much 

 troubled. I grew my plants upon loamy soil, trenched two and a half feet, 

 and manured thoroughly with peat muck, treated with lime. 



