NEWER TERTIARY. 233 



1. The lignite has the deep brown color and coal-like fracture of the brown coal deposits 

 that have not been affected by the proximity of igneous rocks, as is the case at Meisner in 

 Hesse. Yet the woody texture usually remains distinct. 



2. While this coal is distinguished from peat by burning with a bright flame, it does 

 not give off a bituminous odor, and thus it differs from bituminous coal. 



3. The degree of carbonization of the fruits corresponds to that in the brown coal 

 formation, as a comparison of specimens shows. 



4. The sand and clays associated with the brown coal of the Rhine Valley, occur also at 

 Brandon. 



III. The fruits and lignite of this deposit appear to have been transported by water, and 

 probably the accumulation took place in an ancient estuary. 



1. No example has occurred in which these fruits have been found in clusters, or 

 attached to the branches on which they grew, or to their envelopes. Nor have I found 

 more than a single imperfect example of a leaf. 



2. The lignite is in broken and usually bruised masses, as if battered by contact with 

 one another when floating down stream. 



2. The numerous places in other parts of the United States where an analogous deposit 

 occurs, as will be shown below, render it probable that this was formed in an ocean, 

 rather than a lake. 



IV. The Brandon Deposit is the type of a tertiary formation hitherto unrecognized as such, 

 extending from Canada to Alabama. 



This formation is identified by the following characters : 



1. The most prominent and well known substance in this formation, on account of its 

 economical importance, is brown hematite. In the geological surveys of Vermont, 

 Masachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and North and South 

 Carolina, this ore is described by Adams, Shepard, Percival, Mather, Henry D. and Wm. 

 B. Rogers, Olmsted and Tuomey. Throughout this whole distance of 1,200 miles there 

 is a striking resemblance in the character of the ore. It is compact, fibrous and stalacti- 

 cal ; and much of it is in a state of ocher. 



2. It is always more or less enveloped in clay of various colors. 



3. It is almost invariably found lying upon, or near, a certain sort of limestone, or its 

 associated and interstratified mica schist. This limestone is usually highly crystalline, and 

 when disintegrated, it shows a large proportion of iron in its composition ; and the general 

 opinion of the geologists above named is, that the iron originated from it. I have, like- 

 wise, some reason to suppose that Foss' bed of hematite in Dover, N. Y., may once have 

 constituted a bed in mica schist. 



In all the Northern States, the beds of this ore occur along the western base of high 

 mountains. And from the description of the gentlemen above named, I understand this 

 to be the case in the Middle and Southern States. Prof. Henry D. Rogers imputes this 

 fact to the southern direction of the currents in the great ocean by whose waters the iron 

 and the clay were deposited, and to the greater depression of the valley on its south-east- 

 ern side. Prof. Rogers is the only geologist, I believe, who speaks decidedly of the depo- 

 sition, of this ore from the ocean. By this supposition, he comes so near representing this 

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