Feb. 5, 1875.] '^'^ *- [Cope. 



The heating power of these coals compares favorably with that had 

 from the majority of semi-bituminous and many bituminous coals. They 

 should be burned in boilers adapted for use with bituminous coals. 



As gas coals, Excelsior and Mine No. 3 possess fair qualities. They 

 yield a very large amount of gas, and with a little enrichment (either by 

 the admixture of canuel or a small amount of oils) will prove serviceable 

 to the gas-maker. 



If these samples are from outcrop or from near the surface, it will 

 most likely be found that the quality of the coal will improve, as it is 

 obtained from a greater depth ; so that without any limitation in the 

 quantity of gas yielded, they will compare more favorably with the east- 

 ern bituoaiuous coals for gas purposes. Respectfully, 



CHARLES M. CRESSON, M. D. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE VERTEBRATA OF THE MIOCENE OF 

 CUMBERLAND COUNTY, NEW JERSEY. 



By E. D. Cope. 



{Bead before the American PliilosopMcal Society, Feb. 5, 1875. > 



The marls of the Miocene period appear in a limited area in South- 

 western New Jersey, chiefly in Cumberland County. Their mineral 

 character is similar to that of the marls of the same age in the Southern 

 Atlantic States, viz. : a calcareous clay containing small percentages of 

 phosphate of lime and potash. In New Jersey its strata abound in 

 shells, and Vertebrate remains are rather common. Timothy A. Conard, 

 the father of our Marine Tertiary Geology, as early as 18 §2, in his "Fos- 

 sil Shells of the Tertiary," called it the upper marine formation, and 

 stated that it " first appears in New Jei'sey, southeast of Salem, and con- 

 tinues throughout all the States south of this." Professor Rogers, in his 

 Geology of New Jersey, published in 1840, p. 293, calls the beds Ter- 

 tiary, and remarks " though this proposition (of shells) might rather im- 

 ply an Eocene date for the deposit while on the other hand all the 



species are either identical with those of the Miocene of Maryland and 

 Virginia, or exhibit a close analogy of form." In a memoir read before 

 the American Philosophical Society, and published in the volume of 

 Transactions for 1837, p. 334 Prof. Rogers, assigns the corresponding 

 beds in Eastern Virginia to the Miocene period. The evidence derived 

 from the vertebrate fossils does not conflict with this view. A full ac- 

 count of the geology of the formation as it appears in New Jersey, is 

 given by Prof. G. H. Cook, in his report of the Geological Survey of New 

 Jersey, 1868. 



A. p. S. — VOL. XIV. 2u 



