PAL.&0NT0L0GICAL KEP0RT OF GEOLOGICAL StJKVET. 549 



black band, which sometimes disappears, sometimes occupies the whole 

 thickness of the shales. The black band itself does not contain any 

 fossil remains; but at all the places where it is not formed, the shales 

 contain, in abundance, the remains of fishes mentioned above. 



Besides at Airdrie, we observed this 1 2th coal over the limestone in 

 the peaks of Otter, on Town's property, Hopkins county, Kentucky, 

 where it is a rashy coal, three to four feet thick, and has a black band 

 parting shale, with the remains of fishes. At MeNairy's, Muhlenburg 

 county, Kentucky, where it comes within two feet and a half of No. 

 11, and is a rashy coal, with black limestone between it and No. 11; 

 opposite New Curdsville, in Henderson county, where it has only six 

 inches coal dirt, comes to within three feet of No. 11, and has lime- 

 stone both above and below it, and probably also at the top of Gamb- 

 lin hill, Hopkins county, where we saw its out-crop only, in a hole full 

 of water, which prevented closer examination. This bed is no where 

 open in such a manner that it could be studied satisfactorily. It is 

 indicated at other places, but always as a rash and unreliable coal. 



This terminates the series of local information that we were able to 

 collect in one month of palseontological survey in the western coal- 

 fields of Kentucky. Perhaps the results may not be accepted as en- 

 tirely satisfactory; but, considering the short time, and the extent of 

 country surveyed, we think that it was hardly possible to obtain a 

 larger amount of useful information. Not only the true vertical ex- 

 tent or the thickness of the Coal Measures of Kentucky is at once 

 fixed, bnt the geological level of many important stations is ascer- 

 tained, and these may serve as points of comparison for future inves- 

 tigation. Moreover, the first basis for the determination of the coal- 

 fields, by palseontological remains, is laid down in this report, and 

 every observer may test its value, and find out every fact that can 

 modify or consolidate it. For, though the most valuable beds of coal 

 of Kentucky have had their essential characters pointed out in such 

 a manner that every geologist will easily know them again every where, 

 yet there is a great thickness of the Coal Measures that is still nearly 

 unexplored. This part contains, wrthout doubt, the less important and 

 less valuable veins; nevertheless, the study of coals Nos. 2, 3, 5, 

 and 8, may be of great interest in a scientific point of view. For this 

 the collection of all the fossil remains, plants, shells, fishes, with refer- 



