400 VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL KELICKS IN 



vapour; and is therefore as good for brewers and malt- 

 sters as Kilkenny coal. Over this coal lies a stratum of 

 thick coarse slate, containing ferns of a very large size. 

 They appear to have been petrified, inasmuch as their 

 substance seems to have been there. They cross each 

 other, throughout the several laminae, in all directions. 

 Dr. Case's publications afford much information con- 

 cerning the inflammable materials covered by this roof 

 of capillary plants. The specimens I possess are very 

 distinct. 



North Carolina. 



At a place called Fishing creek, 150 miles from the 

 sea coast, and almost four from Tarborough, in digging 

 some little depth, they found a part of the skeleton of a 

 whale, wjth sea shells in abundance. In the same place, 

 in digging a well, at the depth of almost thirty-five feet, 

 they found a cypress stump, with chips about and upon it, 

 and an iron hatchet or wedge sticking into it. The 

 skeleton of another whale, together with a petrified por- 

 tion of a shark's jaw with teeth, has been found at a place 

 called Williamstown, more than 100 miles from the sea 

 coast. 



About a year ago, the skeleton of a huge animal was 

 found on the bank of the Meherrin river, near Mur- 

 freesborough. It was dug out of a hill, distant sixty miles 

 from the ocean. Capt. Neville and Dr. Fowler, who 

 visited the spot, gathered the scattered vertebrae which 

 the negroes had thrown out, and laid them in a row 

 thirty-six feet in length. If to this the head and tail be 

 added, the creature must have been perhaps fifty feet 

 or more in length. The former of these gentlemen 

 enriched my collection with two of the teeth and a 



