OF ARKANSAS. \i \ 



it then surprising that it should engage the attention of the closet philoso- 

 pher, and awaken the enthusiasm of the enterprising explorer? 



"But palaeontology is not a study of mere curious, scientific inquiry ; it has 

 also its practical inferences, and these of the most important character, 

 with their direct matter-of-fact bearings. In illustration of this view of 

 the subject, permit me, in this connection, to direct the attention of the 

 reader to Figs. 1, 5, and 6, of Table IV.* The fossil corals represented 

 in these engravings, are found imbedded in the subcarboniferous lime- 

 stones, and near the top of the series ; always under the true productive 

 coal-bearing beds ; never above these, or included in them ; and nowhere 

 else. This geological fact holds good, not only in Iowa, but through the 

 entire range of the subcarboniferous limestones in Indiana, Illinois, Ken- 

 tucky, and Tennessee. In not a single instance, from the range of the 

 Cumberland mountains, on the east, to the interior of Iowa, on the west, 

 has a workable bed of coal been discovered in a position beneath the 

 strata of limestone containing these corals. In these organic remains, 

 then, we find the surest, the most unerring guide in the search after this 

 valuable article of commerce, that warms our houses, that drives our 

 steam engines, by which we navigate our rivers, lakes, and oceans ; that 

 propels the machinery by which we weave our fabrics ; that reduces our 

 iron, by which we cultivate our soil, and carry on every conceivable 

 mechanical operation ; that refines our metals, that contributes to the pro- 

 duction of both the necessaries and luxuries of life, and by which we 

 transmit intelligence with the swiftness of lightning, to stations the most 

 remote. .Without the knowledge of this fact, millions of dollars might be 

 expended — have been expended — in fruitless and hopeless mining opera- 

 tions after geological incompatibilities. 



" All the figures on Table V, A and B,* are equally persistent in their 

 undeviating geological position, quite below the productive coal measures, 

 as well as beneath these same coral-bearing beds. 



"In stratigraphical palaeontology we have, then, the safest and the most 

 trustworthy index to direct our explorations after mineral treasures in the 

 fossiliferous strata." 



* See Geological Report of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, 1852. 



