JEFFERSON COUNTY. 737 



its usual parting. The mine opened in this seam on the Diamond Coal 

 Company's! property is of special scientific interest, as it has yielded a 

 remarkably interesting group of fossils. These are the remains of fishes 

 and aquatic salamanders, about twenty species of the former, and nearly 

 twice as many of the latter, having been already described. All these 

 are found in a stratum of cannel four to six inches in thickness, which 

 underlies the cubical coal. This cannel layer is not found in any other 

 locality where Coal No. 6 has been opened in the region, and it probably 

 has but a limited extent. As it has been shown in the general review 

 of the mode of formation of coal, in Vol. II, all cannel coals are deposited 

 from water, and this view is confirmed by the fact that all the remains 

 found in the Linton cannel are those of aquatic animals. 



The mode of formation of this interesting deposit was apparently this : 

 Coal No. 6 occupied a depression of the surface as a peat bog, but the 

 lowest portion of this depression was for a time a lagoon, perhaps land- 

 locked, perhaps connecting with the sea. In this lagoon fishes and 

 swimming salamanders, much like our Menopoma and Menobranchus, lived 

 and died for ages. In process of time this lagoon was "grown up" by 

 the vegetation that lined its shores, just as so many lakelets are now 

 being converted into peat bogs in the northern part of our State. 



To the palseontologist there are few places in the world more interest- 

 ing than the Diamond Mine, at Linton, since we here get such a view of 

 the life of the Carboniferous age as is afforded almost nowhere else, and 

 of the great number of species found there, not more than three or four 

 have ever been met with elsewhere. It is also true that the mine is 

 by no means exhausted of its novelties, and a large part of the amphib- 

 ian remains obtained there are so fragmentary that very important 

 portions of their structure yet remain unknown. Hence it is to be 

 hoped that those who have the opportunity will make an effort to secure 

 from a deposit which is destined soon to be worked out, as large a por- 

 tion as possible of the scientific riches it contains. 



The "Rogers coal" (No. 5) is not certainly known to be present at 

 Linton. The interval between Coals No. 4 and 6, on the Diamond prop- 

 erty, is covered, and no outcrops of it are seen. It is reported that a 

 boring or shaft, sunk in the Diamond Mine, cut Coal No. 5 some sixteen 

 feet below the "Big Vein;" but this statement wants confirmation, both 

 as regards the discovery of such a coal seam and its identification as the 

 " Roger Vein." 



On the east side of Block House Run a heavy sandstone is seen to 

 occur about on the horizon of Coal No. 5, and only a streak of coal is left 

 to represent that seam. The "Strip Vein" lies just along the grade of 



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