NATURAL HISTORY. 



51 



COAL AND IRON AT BRANDON. 



FIGURES OF FRUIT. 



IGNEOUS ROCKS. 



and the coal may also be traced to the 

 surface. But the great bulk of the clay, 

 iron, manganese and coal, is buried at a 

 considerable depth beneath the drift, whicli 

 consists principally of pebbles, gravel and 

 ochrey earth. 



In the area above mentioned, there have 

 been sunk, principally for obtaining the 

 iron ore, five shafts, to depths varying from 

 lOU to 130 feet, from these shafts, at 

 depths of 80 or UO feet, drifts have been 

 sent otf in various directions, connecting 

 the different shafts, and various galleries 

 have also been formed by the removal of 

 the ore. By the shafts and drifts, the iron, 

 clay and coal have been passed through in 

 various directions, and something has been 

 learned respecting tlieir relative position 

 and extent. The locality was visited during 

 the summer of 1852, by a number of dis- 

 tinguished geologists, among whom were 

 Dr. Hitchcock, President of Andierst Col- 

 lege, Sir Charles Lyell, Prof. .James Hall, 

 of Albany, and Mr. Foster, United States 

 Geologist ; and the conclusion seems to be, 

 that the formation, embracing the hematitic 

 iron ore, the manganese, the kaolin and 

 the coal, are of the same geological age, as 

 the brown coal of Evirope, and, ilierefore, 

 belong to the tertiary period. 



The extent of the brown coal at Brandon, 

 is not yet ascertained. It shows itself at, 

 or very near, the surface of the ground, and 

 has been found at the depth of 90 feet. It 

 seems to descend somewhat obliquely, by 

 the side of the kaolin, in a columnar form, 

 about twenty feet wide and fourteen feet 

 thick. The cai'bonaceous materials are of a 

 dark brown color, ajjproaching to black. 

 Some portions of them arc very completely 

 converted into coal, while, in other parts, 

 tlie woody structure and the foi'm of the 

 trees are clearly seen. Scattered in this 

 mass of materials, for the most part near 

 the surfece, arc found many varieties of 

 seeds or fruits, which vary in size from that 

 of a fig to that of less than a barley-corn. 

 These fruits "sere at first supposed to be 

 butternuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, 

 &c., such as are now indigeneous in Ver- 

 mont, but a very slight examination suffi- 

 ces to show that they are unlike any vege- 

 tation now growing in our country. 



President Hitchcock, in an interesting 

 article* on the deposit of brown coal at 

 _ Brandon, has figured about twenty species 

 of the fruits found in it, and his figures, 

 for the most part, agi'ce very well with 

 specimens of the fruit obtained )iy . myself 

 from the coal. To furnish some idea of 

 these fruits, I give, in the next colunni, 

 figures of a few of such of the fruits as I 

 have in my possession. 



■ Silliman's Journal of Science, Vol. XV.,— p. 95. 



The Brandon coal contains a considerable 

 amount of earthy matter, but it bui'ns 

 readily, even when first taken from the 

 bed ; and is employed, almost exclusively, 

 for fuel in driving the steam engine, by 

 which the iron ore is raised and the water 

 pumped from the mine. 



As the hematitic iron ore, kaolin, man- 

 ganese, &c., which occur at Brandon in 

 conjunction with the coal, are found at 

 numerous other places in Vermont, along 

 the western foot of the Green Mountains, it 

 is, also, highly probable that at some of 

 these places, coal will likewise be found. 



The conclusion to which President Hitch- 

 cock has arrived, from his examination of 

 the subject, is, that the formation of which 

 the Brandon deposit is a type, Ijelougs to 

 the tertiary period, and that it extends 

 through the entire length of the United 

 States, from Canada to Alabama. 



Igneous Rocks. 



The only unstratified igneous rocks in 

 Vermont, Avhich occupy any considerable 

 extent of territory, are granite and serpen- 

 tine. The fields of granite are nearly all in- 

 cluded in the calcario-mica slate division of 

 the state. The granite appears, every where, 

 to have been forced up from beneath, in a 

 melted state, between the strata and beds of 

 slate and limestone, sometimes in small iso- 

 lated elevations ; but for the most part in long 

 narrow ranges, extending north and south, 

 in accordance with the strike of the outcrop 

 of the strata. This is particularly obser- 

 vable in the eastern part of the counties of 

 Orleans and Washington, and in the west- 

 ern part of Caledonia county. 



The most extensive tracts of granite, and 

 the only ones, which have mucli width 

 from east to west, are in Essex county, and 

 in the southwestern part of Caledonia 

 county, and the adjacent parts of the 

 counties of Washington and Orange. It 

 was from the southwestern part of this last 

 tract, in Barre, that the granite was ob- 



