282 Sdentijic Tntelligence. 



m 



of the fishes were cannibals! Some of the coprolites I have seen 

 connected with the anus of the fish appearing as if extruded by compres- 

 sion of the fish. Some of the fish appear to have been dead and par- 

 tially putrid when they were enclosed in the strata, others evidently 

 struggled hard against adverse fortune, erected their fins strongly to 

 guard themselves from some imagined swallower, while others wiggled 

 and squirmed in vain to free themselves from the tenaceous mud which 

 embalmed them in their last struggle. In fact these fishes are literally 

 embalmed and not petrified, the bitumen which so richly charges the 

 marly or soft clay slate or shale preserving in the most delicate manner 

 everv scale, fin, and the minutest marking's ; the scales retain their 

 silvery hue slightly tinted yellowish brown by the bitummous matter. 



2. Immense Coal bed, — Mr. J. Dill has communicated to the Family 

 Visitor a brief account of a remarkable deposit of mineral coal at 

 Straitsville, Perry county, Ohio, which, if true, exceeds anything of 

 the kind before discovered. He writes: 



" Reports of an immense structure of coal in the vicinity of this 

 place, have loner been circulated in Central Ohio. I first heard of it 

 in the winter of 1848-9; it was then reported to be about ninety feet 

 thick. Further examinations ascertained the thickness of the uncov- 

 ered part, in the face of a deep ravine at 112 feet. A few days since 

 a gentleman of high standing informed me, that an acquaintance of 

 his, with some others, had stripped the upper surface of the bed and 

 bored through the coal stratum to ascertain its thickness, and found it 

 to be 138 feet." 



Mr. J, W. Foster adds, in a letter to the editors, as follows : 



" Although this extent is at variance with all our previous knowledge 

 of carboniferous deposits, yet I have no doubt that, in the main, it is 

 true. I was recently within a day's ride of the locality, but regret that 

 I was unable to devote the requisite time to its examination. 1 con- 

 versed with several intelligent persons who had seen the deposit and 

 all concurred in representing it as one of unparalled thickness. It is 

 exposed for several miles in the banks and along the bed of a small 

 stream — one of the tributaries of the Hocking river. Like most of 

 the coals of Ohio, it is highly bituminous and is more or less impreg- 

 nated with iron pyrites which for manufaclurine: purposes, impairs its 

 value. The deposit instead of being one bed, may be regarded as a 

 repetition of beds; for, at intervals of a few feel, we meet with thin 

 seams of shale, forming natural divisions. Altogether, it may be re- 

 garded as the most wonderful deposit yet brought to light.'* 



3. On Fossil Fish in the Coal rocks of Ohio ; by J. W. Foster, 

 (Communicated for this Journal in a letter dated Brimfield, June 23.) 



While at Zanesville, recently, I discovered a locality in the carbon- 

 iferous series, rich in the remains of fishes. Associated with them 

 were several species of molluscs and corals, and even the delicate 

 fronds of the Neuropteris. I have never before observed a locahty 

 where the forms of animal and vegetable life were so confusedly man- 

 gled. I have also succeeded in procuring beautifully preserved teeth 

 from the limestone of Cambridge, belonging to this series — the exist- 

 ence of which I had known for several years. 



