No. 161. J 
183 
been found in a geological position, similar to that in New-York, 
beneath the coal. 
On the probability of discovering Coal. 
Owing to the great demand for this species of fuel in many sec- 
tions of the district, repeated local examinations, not guided by- 
science, have been made to ascertain its presence in veins or strata, 
but without success. The true relations of the rocks here to the 
carboniferous deposites of Pennsylvania, have hitherto been greatly 
misunderstood, and the comparisons with European formations re- 
mote from the true analogies. 
Dr. Buckland judiciously observes: "Before we had acquired by 
experiment some extensive knowledge of the contents of each se- 
ries of formations, which the geologist can readily identify, there 
was no a priori reason to expect the presence of coal in any one 
series of strata rather than another. Indiscriminate experiments 
in search of coal, in strata of every formation, were therefore de- 
sirable and proper in an age when even the name of geology was 
unknown; but the continuance of such experiments in districts 
which are now ascertained to be composed of the non-carbonife- 
rous strata of the secondary and tertiary series, can no longer be 
justified, since the accumulated experience of many years has prov- 
ed, that it is only in strata of the transition series, which have been 
designated as the Carboniferous Order^ that productive coal mines 
on a large scale have ever been discovered."* We may add, that 
it is equally fruitless to search for such mines in strata below as it 
is in those above the carboniferous order. 
Not only are all the coal beds or strata of the Union of later ge- 
ological date, and higher in the scale of formation, than the rocks 
of this district, but one fact illustrative of the manner in which the 
strata originated, is particularly worthy of notice, because it has 
important bearings on the question regarding the possibility of dis- 
covering coal. From the deposition of the first sedimentary rocks, 
to that of the newest stratum of the district, all the dry land, if 
there was any, seems to have been confined to the few points pre- 
sented by naked and barren primary rocks. Admitting that all 
coal deposites of any extent and value were derived from luxuri- 
ant vegetation on land or in fresh water marshes, we perceive that 
the conditions necessary for the deposition of extensive coal strata 
•Bridgewater Treatise, vol, 1, p. 624, 
