36 THE DEVONIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS. [bull. 80. 



Transition.... Submedial order.... i £ SLXn^andVtone 



In 1833 Eaton gave reasons for referring the Pennsylvania coal beds 

 to the Secondary Coal Measures of Europe. 1 In this article reference 

 is made to coal plants collected by Mr. James Hall, then adjunct pro- 

 fessor in Rensselaer Institute. Eaton defended his reference of the coal 

 beds of Pennsylvania to the " Secondary," and mentioned his identifi- 

 cation of twenty-three species of the specimens of ferns collected by 

 Hall with species described by Brougniart from the great Secondary 

 coal formation. 



J. B. Gibson, in 1833, recognized in Pennsylvania, New York, Upper 



Canada, Ohio, and Michigan, two superior formations : the New Red sand- 



stone, associated with which he reports Magnesian limestone, gypsum, and 



rocksalt ; resting on this is a calcareous formation, forming the cataracts 



of Niagara, Onondaga, and Genesee. 2 Of the limestone along the Niagara 



River he said : 



It corresponds in all material respects to the Lias of the English geologists and 

 corroborates the German doctrine of universal formations. 3 



And more of the same kind. 



Bituminous coal in Alabama was reported by Alexander Jones in 

 1834, and a section was run across the country from Baltimore to the 

 Ohio River by William E. A. Aiken. 4 



In 1834-'35 the Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylva- 

 nia, vols. 1, 2, were published. 



Richard C. Taylor had several papers in these transactions in regard 

 to the geological position of the coal deposits of Pennsylvania and 

 Richmond, Virginia. 5 He recognized in the plants from Lewistown, 

 Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, "marine plants of the family Fucoids, 

 from the Grauwacke group, and the Old Red sandstone." 6 In one arti- 

 cle Taylor shows that coal is not to be expected to the northward, as 

 the dip of the rocks is southward. In PI. 8, Fig. 5, the true relation 

 of the beds from Blossburg northward to the Chemung River is given, 

 and from observations made upon the dip of the rocks, decreasing north- 

 ward, he estimated that the rocks at the Chemung River, " Chimney 

 Narrows," would be 6,275 feet below the summit of the hills of the 

 Tioga Basin. These beds below the Blossburg coal basin are called 

 "Old Red sandstone," and he regarded them as 6,000 or 7,000 feet 

 thick. 7 



'The coal bods of Pennsylvania equivalent to the great Secondary Coal Measures of Europe; 

 Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 23, p. 399. 



2 This is the Niagara limestone. 



3 Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 23, p. 203. 



4 Aiken, Dr. William E. A.: "Some notices of the geology of the country between Baltimore and the 

 Ohio River, with a section illustrating the superposition of the rocks." Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 26, 

 1834, pp. 219-232. 



6 Vol. 1, pp. 5-15. 



6 Pp. 204-223: "On the mineral basin of the coal field of Blossburg, on the Tioga River, Tioga 

 County, Pennsylvania." 

 'P. 208. 



