OF ARKANSAS. 141! 
it then surprising that it should engage the attention of the closet philoso- 
pher, and awaken the enthusiasm of the enterprising explorer? 
“But paleontology isnot a study of mere curious, scientific inquiry; ithas 
also its practical inferences, and these of the most important character, 
with their direct matter-of-fact bearings. In illustration of this view of 
the subject, permit me, in this connection, to direct the attention of the 
reader to Figs. 1, 5, and 6, of Table IV.* The fossil corals represented 
in these engravings, are found imbedded in the subcarboniferous lime- 
stones, and near the top of the series; always under the true productive 
coal-bearing beds; never above these, or included in them; and nowhere 
else. This geological fact holds good, not only in Iowa, but through the 
entire range of the subcarboniferous limestones in Indiana, Ilinois, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee. In not a single instance, from the range of the 
Cumberland. mountains, on the east, to the interior of Iowa, on the west, 
has a workable bed of coal been discovered in a position beneath the 
strata of limestone containing these corals. In these organic remains, 
then, we find the surest, the most unerring guide in the search after this 
valuable article of commerce, that warms our houses, that drives our 
steam engines, by which we navigate our rivers, lakes, and oceans; that 
propels the machinery by which we weave our fabrics; that reduces our 
iron, by which we cultivate our soil, and carry on every conceivable 
mechanical operation; that refines our metals, that contributes to the pro- 
duction of both the necessaries and luxuries of life, and by which we 
transmit intelligence with the swiftness of lightning, to stations the most 
remote. Without the knowledge of this fact, millions of dollars might be 
expended—have been expended—in fruitless and hopeless mining opera- 
tions after geological incompatibilities. 
“ All the figures on Table V, A and B,* are equally persistent in their 
undeviating geological position, quite below the productive coal measures, 
as well as beneath these same coral-bearing beds. - 
“In stratigraphical paleontology we have, then, the safest and the most 
trustworthy index to direct our explorations after mineral treasures in the 
fossiliferous strata.” 
* See Geological Report of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, 1852. 
