INTELLIGENCE AND MISCELLANIES. 



I. DOMESTIC. 



J. Notice of Impressions of Plants accompanying the Anthra- 

 cite of Wilkesharre. * 



WiLKESBARRE, Pa. Oct. 8, 1824. 



To the Editor, 

 DsAR Sir, 



Availing myself of the opportunity which the 

 visit of a neighbour to New-Haven affords, I do myself the 

 pleasure of transmitting for your private collection, a few 

 specimens of the vegetable remains accompanying our coal — 

 they are among the best characterized impressions which 

 have been as yet discovered. 



No. 1 and 2 are the interior, moule interieur, and the exte- 

 rior covering of the plant, with the accompanying plate of 

 coal, which allowing for compression, would indicate the 

 thickness of the original vegetable. The specimen sent is 

 one of those inundated plants to which the mass of coal is to 

 be attributed ; they bear strong evidence of their having 

 been deposited in a state of great repose, in the waters 

 where they grew, and would prove that the anthracite has 

 been formed from vegetables which have undergone decom- 

 position in water; they are generally found in the floor of the 

 coal beds in immediate connexion with the coal — the matrix 

 is a fine, carbonaceous, black slate, splitting easily into very 

 thin laminse, and burning white ; where these plants occur- 

 red, or collected in mass, free from the influence of occa- 

 sional muddy water, nearly all traces of organization are 

 obliterated. 



The other large specimen is one of those which are found 

 only in the strata, (above the coal,) formed from the con- 



* Th« Specimens accompanying the letter of Mr. Ciat are uncommonly 

 fine, and it would be happy if intelligent men, residing near our various coal 

 mines, would take care to collect similar specimens. The public have beoa 

 already furnished by Mr. Cist, with a description and plate of the anthracite 

 tainet of Wilkesbarre. — See Vol. IV. p. 1, of this Journal. — Ed. 



