204 FOSSIL, TREES, INDIANA. [CHAP. XXXV. 



a brother of Mr. Maclure, the geologist, who placed his excellent 

 library and carriage at our disposal. He lends his books freely 

 among the citizens, and they are much read. We were glad to 

 hear many recent publications, some even of the most expensively 

 illustrated works, discussed and criticised in society here. We 

 were also charmed to meet with many children happy and merry, 

 yet perfectly obedient ; and once more to see what, after the ex 

 perience of the last two or three months, struck us as a singular 

 phenomenon in the New World, a shy child ! 



I made some geological excursions with Dr. Owen and his 

 friend, Mr. Bolton, to see the &quot; carboniferous rocks,&quot; of which 

 this region is constituted, and the shelly loam, like that of 

 Natchez, which has evidently once filled up to a considerable 

 height the valley of the Wabash, and through which the running 

 waters have re-excavated the present valley. 



There is no church or place of public worship in New Harmony, 

 a peculiarity which we never remarked in any town of half the 

 size in the course of our tour in the United States. Being here 

 on week-days only, I had no opportunity of observing whether on 

 Sundays there are any meetings for social worship. I heard that 

 when the people of Evansville once reproached the citizens of this 

 place for having no churches, they observed that they had also no 

 shops for the sale of spirituous liquors, which is still a character 

 istic of New Harmony ; whereas Evansville, like most of the 

 neighboring towns of Indiana, abounds in such incentives to in 

 temperance. 



April 3. Left New Harmony for Evansville, on the Ohio, 

 Mr. Maclure having kindly lent us his carriage and horses. We 

 were accompanied by Dr. Dale Owen and Mr. Bolton. On the 

 way, we visited KimbalFs mill, in the township of Robinson, in 

 Poser County, fourteen miles northwest of Evansville, where a fine 

 example is seen of upright fossil trees belonging to a species of 

 Sigillaria. These are imbedded in strata of argillaceous shale, 

 or hardened mud, which constitute the upper part of the great 

 Illinois coal-field, and above them lies a horizontal layer of sand 

 stone, while a seam of coal, eighteen inches thick, is observed 

 about eighteen feet below the roots. Having borrowed spades 



