E.. Hitchcock on a Brown Coal Deposit in Brandon, Vt. 108 
3. 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 
oda unrecognized as such, extending from Canada to Ala- 
ma 
This formation is identified by the following characters: 
I. The most prominent and well known substance in this for- 
necticut, New York, New’ Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North and 
South Carolina, this ore is described by Adams, Shepard, Percival, 
Mather, Henry D. and William B. Rogers, Olmsted, and Tuomey. 
Throughout this whole distance of 1200 miles, there is a striking 
Tesemblance in the character of the ore. It is compact, fibrous, 
and stalactitical ; and much of it is in a state of ochre. 
2. t is always more or less enveloped in clay of various colors. 
- [tis almost invariably found lying upon, or near, a certain 
sort of limestone, or its associated and interstratified mica slate. 
This limestone is usually highly crystalline, and when disinte- 
stated, 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. Indeed, Prof. Adams, in his first re- 
Port on the Vermont Survey, has described a true vein of iron 
Ochre in the limestone, which I have also examined. I have 
likewise some reason to suppose that Foss’s bed of hematite in 
Dover, N. Y., may once have constituted a bed in mica slate. 
In all the northern states, the beds of this ore occur along the 
Western base of high mountains. And from the description of 
the gentleman above named, I .understand this to be the case im 
the middle and southern states. Prof. Henry D. Rogers imputes 
this fact to the southern direction of the currents in the great 
hose waters the iron and the clay were deposited, and 
ly of the deposition of this ore from the ocean. By this suppo- 
Siton he comes so 
that it would have needed only a bed of carbonaceous matter, 
enable us to add to American geology a tertiary formation nearly 
1200 miles long, which may appropriately be placed upon our 
