Valley of the Lackawanna and of Wf/07ning.' 321 



more rarely even in the coal itself. There are instances where they fill 

 the slate for a space often feet in thickness, and making due allowance 

 for the compression which they have undergone, the original deposits, 

 must have occupied a vastly greater thickness, than their relics do 

 now. The impressions are very perfect, indicating repose and calftij 

 at the time of their deposition, and excluding the possibility of trans- 

 port from distant countries; there are many species of ferns, none of 

 them, as is said, modern, and most or all tropical ;* there are impres- 

 sions, sometimes several feet long and broad, of the bark of gigantic 

 vegetables ; some botanists say they are palms ; occasionally there are 

 entire limbs, carbonized ; frequently, broad leaves are found of six 

 or seven inches or more in diameter ; culmiferous plants are numer- 

 ous, and so are the aquatic algae, and rushes ; the leaves of the plants 

 are usually in full expansion, the most delicate parts of their struc- 

 ture being exactly preserved, or copied ; and according to Mr. Cist, 

 flowers of a stellated form, are occasionally found. Prof. Hitch- 

 cock, believed that he had found a flower with unfolded petals, and 

 so it appeared to me. 



The inferences to be drawn from the vegetable remains are very 

 interesting, but there is not time to discuss them fully on the present 

 occasion, or to apply the facts to account for the origin of coal ; a 

 subject sufficiently difficult. We cannot however hesitate to say, that 

 vegetable life, on a great scale, attended the formation of this coal,, 

 and both preceded, accompanied, and followed that event ; that the 

 causes which established its existence were repeated many times, 

 and continued to operate, during the deposition of the sucessive stra- 

 ta ; that a sedimentary rock, namely the slate, in a loose and impres- 

 sible form, was deposited with the vegetables, and enveloped, cov- 

 ered and preserved them; that a fragmentary rock succeeded, com- 

 posed of pebbles, rounded or angular, or of sand cemented firm- 

 ly — the ruins of previously existing formations ; that the causes which 

 produced these rocks were also many times repeated, and of course, 

 that all the causes which produced such deposits as the various ones 

 now mentioned, were at different times, alternate, successive, and 

 concomitant. 



Origin of Coal. 



Is the anthracite coal of vegetable origin ? Does the fibrous char- 

 coal, frequently found between its layers, owe its origin to the veget- 



* Implying, of course a harder nature, or a different climate. 

 Vol. XVIII.— No. 2. 41 



