Notice of a Meteoric Fire Ball. 35 



Considering the importance of coal, as a fuel, it would 

 seem as if nature had formed the State of Pennsylvania for 

 a manufacturing country ; every day brings to light some new- 

 discovery of this material which must sooner or later be re- 

 sorted to for the purpose of manufactures. There seem to 

 be two great coal districts in this State. We have been long 

 acquainted with that to the west of the Susquehannah, and 

 extending through the centre of the State to Pittsburgh, but 

 it seems not to have been traced so far to the north of the 

 west branch of the Susquehannah as Tioga River, where it 

 has lately been discovered. The whole of the coal in the 

 district to the west of this river extending to Pittsburgh, is 

 exclusively bituminous, no other kind having been traced 

 there. The second coal district seems to be included be- 

 tween the Delaware, the Schuylkill, the Lehigh, the Lacka- 

 wana, and the east of the Susquehannah River. This is ex- 

 clusively anthracite or non-bituminous coal, nor is it probable, 

 from the geological character of each of these districts, that 

 any other species will be found in either ; and here it is not 

 uninteresting to observe, the uniformity which prevails in the 

 character of the coal formations and of their geological 

 associations, in this country and in England ; perhaps it may 

 be said, that the same analogy prevails in every part of Eu- 

 rope and America. A description of the coal fields in Eng- 

 land would answer for the coal districts of this country, 

 whether bituminous or non-bituminous. The associated 

 minerals, which accompany the bituminous coal in both coun- 

 tries, are uniformly of the same secondary character, and as 

 far as my own observation goes, the same facts may be stated 

 with respect to the anthracites at least in Kilkenny, which 

 are similar to those of this country, and whose geological for- 

 mation is, as in America, decidedly transition. 



Art. V. — Notice of a Meteoric Fire Ball ; by the Rev. S. E. 



Dwight. 



To the Editor. 



New Haven, June 6, 1827. 



Sir, 



The Meteor, of which you requested an account, ap- 

 peared on Saturday evening, March 21, 1813, a little be- 



