530 PALfllONTOLOGICAL report of geological survey. 



also tbe fruits of Lepidodendron, viz : Lepidostrobus, and its detached 

 leaves Lepidophyllum. The rash coal at the bottom has the Lepido- 

 dendron, Stigmaria, and Catamites in abundance, and the coal itself is 

 topped as at Bell's, by one or two inches of cannel. Moreover, at 

 some places in the mines the black shale is wanting, and its place is 

 taken by the sandstone shales with round leaves of Stigmaria. The 

 distance between the two mines of Casey's and Bell's being short, a 

 few miles only — the exact resemblance of the shales and of the fossil 

 remains, is not a remarkable coincidence; but it is otherwise when we 

 compare the fossils with those found at the same geological level in far 

 distant localities. We have seen that the Lingula abounds in many 

 places in the low coal of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Lepidostrobus 

 has, till now, never been found but in the corresponding low coal at 

 Johnstown, at the base of Portage Railroad, in the bituminous coal- 

 fields of Pennsylvania, and at Wilkesbarre, in the anthracite basin. 

 The presence of those fruits or cones, in the same shales as the Lingula, 

 evidently shows that they were the last remains of the vegetation of 

 this coal, and that they had been detached from some trees still stand- 

 ing above the shallow water, and living in it when the vegetation of 

 the surface had already disappeared. 



Old Distillery coal, just above Casey ville, has its place at the same 

 level, evidently marked by the abundance of Lepidodendron in the 

 rash coal of the bottom, and by the Lingula and Stigmaria in the 

 shales of the roof. That there may be near by the same place, a shaft 

 to a lower bed of coal, is possible. But we did not see it, and the po- 

 sition of this coal of the Old Distillery, would scarcely lead to the 

 supposition of another bed of coal below it. 



A recently opened vein, one and a half miles north of Caseyville, 

 on the property of the Kentucky Coal Company, though supposed to 

 be also at a lower level, afforded another favorable opportunity of test- 

 ing the value of a palseontological identification. We found this coal 

 covered with a shaly sandstone, full of Stigmaria, and by three to four 

 inches of black shales, with Lepidodendron and Lepidostrobus. Its 

 thickness is only two feet six inches. It has some 'cannel at its top, 

 and a rashy bottom, with fine remains of Lepidodendron, Catamites 

 pnd Stigmaria- 



