232 Scientific Intellugence. 
mates the Comox coal field, in Vancouver, to have an area of 300 
area of 90 square miles, and contains three or more seams of 
from three to ten feet in thickness. There are also ee areas of 
coal-bearing _— to the southeast of Nanaimo, and on the ex- 
treme northern part of Vancouver, as well as on the pea HS 
near the mouth de. ~ Fraser river. 
rincipal Dawson said that although the ieee of the Car- 
boniferous period was strikingly different from that of the Van- 
couver and Queen Charlotte coal seams, the ire a 
under which the coal was formed, was similar in both cases. In 
other words, coal seems to have been produced from the gare 
tion of swamps and forests, at different geological periods, and 
from very dissimilar kinds of plants. In the coal of Vancouver 
leaves were found = the lecturer said eelen to species of 
oak, plane and popl The coal of Vancouver is bituminous, 
while that of Coan ‘ihaibue is ascertained to be anthracite. 
Anthracite, Dr. Dawson went on to say, is probably bituminous 
coal altered by heat; it wait: an appearance as if it had been 
baked. Very few traces of plants have been found in the Queen 
Charlotte ae: and this was attributed to the metamorphosed 
or altered n of the coal. Specimens of fossil wood were, 
however, ines a in the anthracite, but in nis 8 erga with 
it which Mr. Richardson believes to. be of the same age. e 
woods are allied to those members of the yew family which grow 
inds of wood. eee e of these pieces, traces of boring molluscs 
allied to ide shivaeoain “of modern seas, may be seen. other 
fern had probably been washed out to s Specimens of fossil 
fruits, from Queen Charlotte, were exhibit a These were stated 
to be probably allied to certain fossil fruits described from the 
Isle of Sheppey, which were once thought to belong to true palms, 
ut which are now arn ceng a place between the palms proper 
and the screw pines. Some curious concretions from the bitumin- 
ous coal of Passe were =-aleo exhibit 
