oy ee PROCEEDINGS 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDO N: 
—— 
Vou. IIT. Parr il. 1849. No: '88: 
— i 
March 23.—William Wroughton Salmon, Esq., Park Squat ‘e, 
Regent’s Park, and Devizes, Wilts ; Henry Stevens, Esq., Duffiel: d, 
near Derby ; Francis Downing, Esq., of the Priory, Dudley ; Lord 
Ward of Heinley Hall, near Dudley; and Thomas W. Fletche:r, 
Esq., F.R.S.,; Dudley, were elected Fellows of this Society: 
‘A paper was first read, “On the Coal-fields of Pennsylvania and 
Nova Scotia,” by William Edmond Logan, Esq., F.G:S. 
The objects of this paper are to give, Ist, a few particulars con- 
nected with the extent and character of the carboniferous deposits 
of Pennsylvania, and to point out the extension to the coal-fields of 
America of some facts bearing on the origin of coal, advaticed by 
the author in a previous memoir on South Wales* ; and, 2ndly, to 
detail the results of his observations in Nova Scotia. 
1. Pennsyloania.—The whole of the Pennsylvanian coal-fields 
have been carefully examined, the author says, by the corps of 
State Geological Surveyors, under the able direction of Prof. Rogers, 
to whose admirable reports he bears testimony; but he laments 
their not being accompanied by a general map. In the construc- 
tion of a small plan to accompany his memoir, and compiled from 
different sourcés, the author says, he is solely indebted for the con 
tour of the bituminous district to Mr. Leslie and Mr. McKinnaly, 
attached to the State Survey; and that in the delineation of the 
complicated anthracitic regions he has taken advantage of a manu- 
seript map which he obtained from Mr. Fisher, a coal-surveyor of 
Pottsville. 
The Pennsylvanian carboniferous district is only a portion of that 
great coal region which extends into Maryland, Virginia and Ohio. 
The greatest breadth of the main coal-field of Pennsylvania is from 
the Alleghany mountains to within a dozen leagues of the southern 
shore of Lake Erie; and its lengtlr from Coudersport on the north 
to the southern angle of the State is about 200 miles. There are, 
however, also four or five important detached carboniferous regions 
on the Atlantic side of the Alleghanies, besides numerous small 
ones. ‘The coal-measures consist of micaceous sandstones, arena- 
ceous, argillaceous and carbonaceous shales, and valuable bands of 
limestone. In the bituminous district, under 800 feet of unproduc-+ 
tive strata, are about 10seams of coal, having an aggregate thickness 
* See ante, p. 275. 
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