Dover. — Coal. " 63f 



western country is prolific in species of insects, plants and lan-d ani- 

 mals, without limit ; and shall these immense waters, embracing 

 nearly one fourth of a hemisphere, be restricted according to the 

 opinions of some to a few species of bivalve shells, and those only 

 such as are common to both sides of the Alleghany Mountains ? A 

 still stronger proof than that of analogy, is found in the specific dif- 

 ferences of the molluscous animals themselves. Dissections and 

 comparative examinations of the animals, show a specific differ- 

 ence, even stronger than the outlines of the calcareous coverings. 

 I have myself dissected many shells, for this very purpose. It is 

 furthermore contrary to the general economy of nature, to bring forth 

 and perpetuate varieties, either of plants or animals, except when 

 under the cultivation and artificial direction of man. 



Dover. — Ten miles below Zoar, we passed the village of Dover, 

 with four or five stores, and two or three large flouring mills. The 

 sites for water power machinery, along the canal, are very numerous, 

 and as yet only partially occupied. The Tuscarawas winds through 

 broad and rich bottom lands, in many places more than two miles 

 wide from hill to hill. The adjacent country is moderately hilly, 

 and clothed with dense forests, which are every where fast falling 

 before the axe of the woodman, and rich wheat fields, orchards and 

 meadows are occupying their place. 



Newcastle — Coal. — May 17 : Sixteen miles below Zoar, at New- 

 castle, coal is found at a less elevation, and much more abundant. 

 The deposit here is six feet in thickness, and extensively worked. 

 Wooden slides, on the sides of the hills, conduct the coal from the 

 mouths of the mines to reservoirs on the banks of the canal ; from 

 thence it is carried in boats to the summit, and to the valley of the 

 Scioto. It is said to be of an excellent quality. At the present 

 day, with all the lights that have been thrown upon the subject by 

 chemistry and the study of fossil plants of the coal series, no well 

 instructed and sound geologist would hazard the long exploded the- 

 ory of the mineral origin of coal, by ejection from the interior of 

 the earth. Although some bituminous shales are destitute of the 

 impressions of plants, more than nine tenths of them abound with 

 these authentic proofs of the vegetable origin of coal ; and 1 have 

 never seen a piece of slaty bituminous coal, from any part of the 

 valley of the Mississippi, that was not filled with thin layers of ve- 

 getable fibres, resembling charcoal, and lying between all the hori- 

 zontal folia of the specimen. Whence all these impressions of 



