Remews—Palceontogra'phical Society. 259 



part it played in the active, social -world at the present day, and the 

 grand problem of the future supply." After a description of the 

 strata of the Coal-measures, he described the geographical distribution 

 of coal, and contrasted the beds in North America with those of 

 Europe. The area of coal beds in the former continent was 200,000 

 square miles ; one of the largest coal-fields was in Nova Scotia, on 

 the Bay of Fundy ; further westward there was a bed with a total 

 area which almost surpassed credence. It was 875 miles in length ; 

 it was 185 miles at the widest breadth, and contained more than 

 51,000 square miles. It was as large as England proper. Beyond 

 that there was another nearly as great, and one still greater — con- 

 taining 72,000 square miles, an area larger than England and Wales 

 united. 



In the second lecture Prof. Eogers discoursed on " Petroleum." 

 For two or three years past there had been an intense excitement 

 about rock-oil and petroleum in Pennsylvania, and the contagion had 

 spread to Great Britain, and in Scotland there was now a very keen 

 and active search for mineral oil. There was great fickleness of 

 duration in these oil-wells, — some ran out in two or three months, 

 while others only in two or three years. The districts which most 

 abounded with the oil were Western Canada, Ohio, Western Virginia, 

 Kentucky, and Western Pennsylvania. He pointed out on a map, 

 the result of his own survey, the extent of the oil bearing rocks 

 in Pennsylvania, in the north-western portion of which the region 

 was called Petrolia, it so abounded in this native mineral oil. The 

 extraction of petroleum as an industrial occupation did not begin till 

 1859. It assumed no magnitude till 1861, when in the autumn of that 

 year, in North West Pennsylvania alone, the extraction amounted to 

 2,500 barrels a-day of this rock-oil. Petroleum did not alone con- 

 stitute the wealth of Pennsylvania : that country was a great centre 

 in the production of coal in the United States, and its coal-mines were 

 wonderfully rich. A great deal of the coal was above the water level, 

 so to speak, and the mines were reached by little timnels in the hill 

 sides and momatain sides, and were self-ventilated and self-drained. 



In conclusion Prof. Kogers made some remarks on the origin of 

 mineral oils. Paraffin came from the shale which was part of the 

 Coal-formation, — it occurred in those great bituminous deposits of 

 fossil remains, black and coaly-like, but not in the coal strata. 



e,:e"vie"ws. 



I, — Monographs of the Palteontographical Society. 

 Yol. XVIIL, 1866. 



THIS volume or fasciculus of Monographs (or rather parts of 

 Monographs) is issued for 1864, being due for the subscriptions 

 of that year. The energetic efforts of Council and Sacretary seem 

 likely to bring up the regular issue of the volumes to the current 



