38 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Dr. C. T. Jackson exhibited a specimen of meteoric iron from 
Caiborne Co. Alabama, in whicli he discovered chlorine in the 
form of chloride of iron and nickel. Prof. J. B. Rogers remarked 
on the analyses of meteorites, from Grayson Co. Virginia and 
Georgia, made by him, the former giving 6-15 per cent, of 
nickel and a trace of chlorine, and the latter, a granulated variety, 
7 per cent, of nickel, without any indications of chlorine. 
Mr. Redfield gave notice of the discovery of a new species of 
fossil footmark in the new red sandstone of Connecticut, at the 
well-known quarries at Portland. These are wholly unlike the 
ornithichnites described by Prof. Hitchcock, some of which have 
been found in the same quarries, but they have some resem- 
blance to the Cheirotherium minus, which is figured in the 
" Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de la Prance.^' 
Mr. Bedfield also called the attention of the meeting to a new 
species of fossil fish from Sunderland,, Mass. which seems refer- 
able to the genus Palseoniscus. 
April 29th, 1842.— Prof. Beck, in the chair. Prof. W. B. 
Eogers read a paper " On the Age of the Coal-rocks of Eastern 
Virginia." He described these strata as occupying parts of 
Chesterfield, Powhatan, Amelia, Henrico, and Goochland coun- 
ties, and lying in basins of granite, the principal coal-seam being 
separated by only a few feet from the floor of the primary rock. 
In some places near the margin of the field, where alone they 
have been explored, the thickness of these coal-rocks is 800 feet, 
but it is probably somewhat greater towards the centre. Through- 
out much of this depth they consist of coarse grits, often com- 
posed of the materials of the granite so little worn, as to present 
the aspect of this rock in a decomposing state. Prof. Rogers 
showed, on the testimony of fossils, that the age of these rocks 
instead of being older than the carboniferous formation of the 
west of Europe, was more nearly allied to that of the bottom of 
the oolite formation of Europe. The prevailing fossils are of the 
genera Equisetum, Teenioptcus, and Cycadites or Pterophyllum, 
