Rock Strata and Fossil Plants. 105 



ty per cent of charcoal. Forty grains burned in a crucible and being 

 kept at a red heat for a few minutes, left twenty three grains of coak, 

 which contains but little earth, as fourteen grains of it decompose one 

 hundred of nitre. — 6 feet. 



3. Bituminous shale, and slaty shale, with a little sand, forty feet. 

 The lower part of this deposit, resting on the coal and forming the 

 roof of the mine, contains a thin stratum of clay iron ore, in flat kid- 

 ney shaped masses, formed of concentric layers, and having a nucleus 

 imitating a large leguminous seed. They are of various sizes from 

 that of a bean to that of a quart basin, and all lie with the flattened 

 side next to the coal. The whole of this slate and shale is filled with 

 the impressions of extinct species of plants. Every layer of not 

 more than an eighth or the fourth of an inch in thickness when sep- 

 arated, displays fresh impressions of a variety of species, delineated 

 on the face of the slate with the most exquisite beauty and perfec- 

 tion. The minute markings of the ribs and nervures are faithfully 

 preserved. The vegetable matter is replaced by a thin coating of 

 coal, and when this is removed, the perfect impression is left on the 

 slate. The pealing up or separating of the folia of shale, seemed to 

 me like opening the leaves of a sealed book, here deposited by the 

 Creator, from the earliest ages ; containing a faithful and true record 

 of the history of vegetation, in its primitive days. Before me was 

 collected a vast library of natural history, containing the stereotype 

 copies of an almost endless variety of trees and plants, whose fam- 

 ilies and species, as we have every reason to believe, lived and 

 died, before the creation of man. Four or five species of the Palm 

 tree, as many of Calamites, several Sphenoptera, Neuroptera and 

 Equiseta, &:c. were unfolded, in the few hours which 1 spent in study- 

 ing this most interesting collection. How beautiful and how valua- 

 ble are the means which the all wise Creator has provided for the 

 comfort and the happiness of man. Vast magazines of iron, salt 

 and coal (the latter indispensable to the population of many parts of 

 the globe) were laid up in store for his use, before he was "yet form- 

 ed from the dust of the earth." 



Drawings of a number of the fossil plants from this deposit are 

 given in figures Nos. 37 38, and 39, (page 8 of the wood cuts ;) 

 Nos. 40, 41 and 42, (page 16 ;) Nos. 43 and 44, (page 17 ;) No. 

 45, (page 18 ;) No. 46, (page 19 ;) No. 47, (page 18,) and No. 48, 

 (page 20). The impression of figure No. 37, appears to be similar 

 to that of "Equisetum columnare," and is given of the natural size, 



Vol. XXIX.— No. 1. 14 



