williams.1 MACLURE, CORNELIUS, DRAKE. 23 



discovered in New York and other places, as a central one in the 

 11 Floetz rocks." 



The position of the " Independent Coal formation" is defined by 

 Maclure as extending "from the head waters of the Ohio, with some 

 interruption, all the way to the waters of the Tombigbee." 1 



This " Coal formation," as mentioned above, is placed in the upper 

 part of the " Floetz," and is said to lie on " immense beds of Secondary 

 limestone, intercepted in some places by extensive tracts of sandstone 

 and other Secondary aggregates." 



Maclure was familiar with the theoretical classification of Werner, and 

 it is instructive to us, seeking a universal classification for the rock 

 formations of the earth, to observe that the first geologist of America, 

 in 1809, found the formations of America u the most correct elucidation 

 of the general exactitude " of this German system. Perhaps American 

 geologists are not at present in danger of imitating any foreign system 

 with such reverence, but the attempt to harmonize or coordinate the 

 classifications across the ocean leads to the same imperfect science, unless 

 strict and even severe adherence to the facts be insisted upon. 



In 1818 Elias Cornelius, in a paper on the geology, mineralogy, etc., 

 of parts of Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama aud Mississippi Terri- 

 tories, defined two limestones which he distinguished as the "inclined 

 strata" and the " horizontal strata," reminding us here of the Werne- 

 rian "Floetz" formation. His " inclined strata" were observed along 

 the route of his travels over the Blue Eidge and the Cumberland Moun- 

 tains, and all of the five ranges of the Alleghany Mountains. They 

 were usually called gray limestones, sometimes reddish, as at Knox- 

 ville. The second, or " horizontal strata," of bluish color, he observed 

 from the Cumberland Mountains for 200 miles southwestward. The 

 editor explains in a note that the " highly inclined limestone" is the 

 Transition of Werner ; the " flat strata " belong to the Secondary. 



John Grammar, jr., gave an account of coal mines in the vicinity of 

 liichmond, in Chesterfield County, and noticed that the coal rests upon 

 granite, is inclined 45° to the horizon, and has a thickness from 25 to 

 50 feet, thinning out southward ; but he did not describe its geological 

 horizon. 2 



In an article by John H. Kain, we find a reference to coal worked at 

 Knoxville, Tennessee. 



Daniel Drake published "A geological account of the valley of the 

 Ohio." 3 



This is in a letter to Joseph Correa de Serra, and it presents his 

 views in regard to the surface rocks and conditions, and some of the 

 basement rocks are also referred to in the article, but the nomenclature 

 for these is entirely Wernerian, as "Floetz," "Secondary," "Geest," 

 etc. 



1 Trans. Am. Phil. Soc, vol. 6, p. 425. 



2 This is the first notice we see of the Mesozole coal formations of this region. 

 •Trans, of the Am. Phil. Soc, vol. 2, new series, pp. 124-139. 



