108 ' Coal Strata. 



was known through all that region by the name of the "calico rock." 

 The impression on it was that given at No. 50, a thin coating of 

 coal surrounding and covering the raised figures, gave it much the 

 appearance of a paint or stain, and the regularity of the impressions 

 fully equalled any work of art. I saw this rock, on my return from 

 the falls, at Mr. Stockton's, sixteen miles below ; a portion of it is in 

 my collection. The section gives a very striking likeness of the 

 trunk flattened and compressed by the sand before it was consolida- 

 ted into rock. — 200 feet. 



6. Bituminous Coal. — This bed is four feet in thickness, and is 

 generally vvorked by the manufacturers of salt, being found in all the 

 hills adjacent to the salines. When brought to the mouth of the 

 mine, it is discharged down the side of the hill in a " Slide," con- 

 structed of planks, and is received on a platform below ; whence it 

 is taken in a wagon, drawn by a mule or horse, on a railroad con- 

 structed of wood ; the wagon running on cast iron wheels, with 

 flanges, is confined to the track. On these roads, one mule draws 

 from eighty to a hundred bushels, being as much as was formerly 

 drawn by four horses. It is but a few years since coal came into use 

 at the furnaces ; wood was formerly the only fuel and continued to 

 be in use until the adjacent hills were entirely stripped of their 

 clothing, which gives them their present naked appearance, as seen 

 in the annexed "view of the sahnes." See p. 34 of the wood cuts. 



Beneath the coal is a deposit of dark carbonaceous slate, filled 

 with casts and impressions of fossil plants. Drawings of a number 

 are given taken from this bed at figures Nos. 53 and 54, (p. 22 of the 

 wood cuts ;) No. 59 and 60, (p. 24, of the wood cuts ;) No. 53, re- 

 sembles "Equisetum dubium." No. 54, bears a greater likeness 

 to "Calamites cruciatus," than any other figure in Mr. Brongniart's 

 collection of drawings, but still differs in many points. It is most 

 probably a new species. The drawing is taken from a cast of a 

 trunk, eight or nine feet long, six inches wide, and one inch thick, 

 compressed and flattened, and probably also wasted away. The 

 surface is coated with coal, the main body is slate or indurated clay. 

 It is coated with circular depressions, one third of an inch in diameter, 

 and two eighths deep in the center placed in transverse lines. The 

 original stem must have been twenty feet or more in length ; casts 

 like this are very numerous in this bed. I observed no similar ones 

 in the bed below. No. 59, appears to be a small species of "Neu- 

 ropteris heterophylla." No. 60, appears to be a new species of 



