14 Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. 



made, until the whole of the capital, with the exception of some 

 twelve per cent., Has been repaid. When that is accomplished, the 

 tolls are to be so reduced as to allow six per cent, upon the then 

 nominal capital only, and to pay the expenses of transportation, at 

 which time the charge for transportation ought to be reduced 

 some two and a half cents per bushel; and if at that time the 

 contemplated branching to Warwick shall take place, and locomo- 

 tive power be substituted for the present expensive plan of using 

 horse power, then the price of Yirginia coal can be so lowered as 

 to make it the interest of all consumers of bituminous coal on 

 our Atlantic border to use it almost exclusively. 



Richmond, Sept. 1, 1841. 



Remark by the senior editor* — The coal of Virginia has been 

 long known throughout the Atlantic states. From the Mid Lo- 

 thian Coal Mines, we have recently received a series of specimens 

 illustrative of the structure of this coal-field. It is based upon 

 granite, and consists of the usual alternations of sandstones, shales, 

 clays, and coal. 



The coal is of an excellent quality; and it appears from print- 

 ed certificates of many manufacturers, that it is used in very va- 

 rious operations requiring fire, especially in the different manu- 

 factures of iron both in light and heavy work, and it is said to 

 have been recently introduced into the manufacture of copper. 



Art. II. — Regarding Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone ; 

 by David Dale Owen, M. D., of Indiana, with a plate. 



(Communicated for this Journal.) 



The occurrence of representations of human feet in solid rock, 

 has lately excited considerable attention, both in this country and 

 in Europe. The intimate connexion of the subject with those 

 great problems, the age of our race and the gradual peopling of 

 our globe with animated beings, invests it with additional inter- 

 est, in the eyes not only of the scientific explorer but of the gen- 

 eral reader also. 



* See Vol. I, p. 125, for an account of these mines, by John Grammer, Jr. 



