6 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 
he has seen in the slates and rocks surrounding the coal 
seams he has mined in his life time experience. In ninety- 
nine cases out of one hundred he will be able to count them 
on his fingers; and, when we consider that a coal miner 
(whether in the room or in the gangway), advances at least 
two feet per day on an average, or makes an advance of at 
least three miles in thirty years, with a width of, (using a 
medium between an eight foot gangway and a twenty-four 
foot room,) say sixteen feet; his experience should convince 
any one that the surrounding circumstances at the original 
formation of a coal seam, resembled those of a peat swamp, 
instead of a tropical growth of large trees, as the old ideas 
represented. The evidence is not positive that the climate 
was tropical at all, but rather that it was mild and of 
nearly uniform temperature. In evidence of this I will 
state that the fossil remains of the Calamites plant can be 
found in every ledge from the base of the Millstone Grit to 
the top of the Montevallo conglomerate, according to my 
own observation. Now, the living plants most nearly re- 
sembling the Calamite, are found in mild and even cool cli- 
mates. I am informed by men that have been to New Zea- 
land, that the flora of that country more nearly resembles 
our extinct Carboniferous flora than any they have seen; 
and the fact is beyond dispute that New Zealand has the 
mildest climate in the known world; in the Southern part 
they do not have sun and heat enough to grow our Indian 
corn. Therefore, following this course of reasoning, that 
like causes will produce similar effects, we shall be com- 
pelled to obliterate our old ideas of a tropical climate with 
a forest growth of large trees. 
Any old coal miner has seen millions of small fossil 
plants, but I have not met one who has seen a large number 
of fossil trees. 
The Cahaba Coal Field is drained solely by the Cahaba 
River and its tributaries. This river descends from its 
northeast end to the south end like a main drain, to which 
all the creeks and branches on both sides contribute their 
quota towards making it swell out to such proportions that 
on leaving the coal field it is large enough for navigation, 
were it “slackwatered” from the Alabama River to the 
Coal Field. 
