58 
iron. At that time no doubt existed in his mind of its 
having come from one of the Furness iron mines, hut Mr. 
Bolton could give him no proof of the exact locality where it 
was found. At a meeting of the Manchester Geological Society, 
held on the 30th May, 1866, he gave his opinion of the value 
of this fossil as indicating the carboniferous age of the 
haematite iron ores of Furness. These specimens have been 
kindly lent him by Mr. Swainson, of Newland, their present 
owner, and were exhibited on the table for examination. 
With them were some other interesting specimens from the 
cabinet of Miss E. Hodgson, of Ulverstone, a lady well 
known for her acquaintance with the geology of Furness, 
and who procured the specimens now exhibited from the 
Water Blain Mines, west of the Duddon. They do not 
exhibit their external characters so well as Mr. Swainson’s 
specimens do; but one is a Stigmaria, the root of Sigillaria, 
and another a Lepidodendron, two common coal plants, 
which indicate the carboniferous age of the deposit in 
which they were found as clearly as any fossil organic re- 
mains can do. There is no doubt about the locality of 
Miss Hodgsons specimens. They came from the Water 
Blain Mines, and plenty more may be obtained from the 
same place. They are all converted into good haematite 
iron, that substance having metallized them in a similar 
way, as we find plants in the Coal Measures converted into 
the carbonate of the protoxide or the bisulphide of iron or 
carbonate of lime. 
It was not his intention here to attempt to give any ex- 
planation of the process by which the original ligneous 
structure of the plant has been removed and replaced by 
per-oxide of iron, that is a subject better fitted for the 
chemist than the geologist. 
Now the discovery of common coal plants not only 
embedded in but actually formed of haematite iron, surely 
indicates the carboniferous age of the deposits in which 
