304 BOTANY AND PALEONTOLOGY 



with pebbles of carbonate of iron, and marked by a few fossil plants. The 

 coal, three and a half feet thick, is like that of Jenny Lind prairie, over- 

 laid by half a foot of brash, which contains a great abundance of fossil 

 plants. They have been determined, and are enumerated in the Table. 

 The species indicate the closest relation with those of Mr. Male's coal- 

 bank. Thus, this coal of James' Fork, by the nature and composition of 

 the shales, and by its brash coal, and by the identity of the plants which 

 it contains, is like an intermediate link uniting all the coal-banks examined 

 until now, or indicating their place on the same geological horizon. It 

 has a number of the plants of Male's coal, especially the two species 

 which I consider true characteristic plants of the Subconglomeratic coal in 

 Arkansas, viz., Alethopteris Owenii, Sp. nov., and Sphenophyllum bifurcatum, 

 Sp. nov., the first common also at Lee's Creek coal-bank. It has the 

 shales of the same composition and appearance as those examined at 

 Frog Bayou, as also the same plants, and the brash coal and the fossil 

 species of Jenny Lind prairie coal. 



The thickness of the two coal-banks examined in Sebastian County, 

 compared with that of the coal strata of Crawford and Washington Coun- 

 ties, would perhaps indicate a progressive increase in the development of 

 the subconglomeratic coal towards the south. Hence, the researches for 

 workable beds of coal might be advantageously followed up, not only in 

 Sebastian County but also in the southern part of Franklin and Johnson 

 and in the northern part of Scott and Yell Counties. 



FRANKLIN COUNTY, GRAND PRAIRIE. JUDGE ALDRICH S COAL-BANK. 



This bank has been worked occasionally to supply the wants of the 

 blacksmiths of the country. It is still opened at some other localities in 

 the neighborhood, and found nearly everywhere in the prairies of South 

 Franklin, one or two feet below the surface. But where we had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining it, the coal had been covered up again, and nothing 

 could be seen of it but a few pieces of shale thrown out from old ditches. 

 This coal on Grand Prairie is generally eighteen inches thick, overlaid by 

 hard, sandy, micaceous gray shales. The only fossil plant found in con- 

 nection with them is Qalamites pachyderma, Brgt., a species which, till 

 now, has never been found but within or below the Conglomerate Series. 

 Thus, though the examination of this coal was necessarily unsatisfactory 

 from the want of exposed materials, the finding of this only species is 

 sufficient to indicate its position as being below the Millstone Grit. 

 Another evidence of the position of this coal was found in the nature of 

 the strata overlying it; since just at the top of a small hill in the middle 

 of Grand Prairie, and at about forty feet above an opening of this coal, 



