164 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
Lambert Heinen. Mr. Andy Heinen, who worked in the mine when it was 
running, states that the twigs, etc., were found in the cap rock, which in this 
location was strong enough to permit mining by the long wall method. Very 
little of the refuse material was brought out of the mine, the miners throwing 
it behind them into the place from which the coal had been removed (into the 
“gob.”) The coal here has been mined out, the timbers rotted and the roof 
caved in, so that we may expect no more specimens from this immediate 
location. Half a mile west there is no cap rock above the seam, and the 
shale there found has yielded no fossils. Many twigs and limbs are reported to 
have been removed from mines formerly worked across the road to the north of 
the first named location, but no traces of such fragments are now to be seen. 
The importance of locating these pockets where conditions favorable to the 
petrifaction of coal measure plants have existed is so great that the results of 
search made in other places will now be stated in hopes that this information 
will stimulate search on the part of others, that by combined effort the knowl- 
edge of the upland coal fiora may be greatly enhanced. 
In January, 1911, Mr. William M. Richardson of Indianola presented me a 
fine specimen of a coal measure nut or seed that came from a mine in the Nw. 
qr. of Sec. 26, Tp. 77N., R. 25 W. As work was then in progress on the Lepid- 
ostrobus this specimen was immediately sent to Chicago to be sectioned. Un- 
fortunately the inside contained only structureless clay, though the outside was 
of smooth iron pyrites, preserving even faint ridges and hollows on the surface 
of the specimen. A cast of this specimen is here for exhibition. Because of 
the inaccessibility of this mine from my home I have not recently been able 
to search there, though I hope to do so in a very short time. 
This same style of petrifaction by iron pyrites is found four miles east of 
Somerset, somewhere in the group worked by Epps, Jones, Benham and 
Welch. Recent search has brought nothing to light; but there is in the 
collection at Simpson College the dorsal spine of a shark nicely petrified 
in iron pyrites, which specimen was found in this locality. In the collection of 
the Iowa Geological Survey at Des Moines is another spine from Somerset.- 
The former of these two specimens is here for exhi^)ition. Evidently there 
is a pocket in this locality that may yet furnish other instructive fossils. 
While looking through the collection of fossils in the Historical Building 
at Des Moines last November I discovered two nut-like un-named fossils 
in the collection, each somewhat different from the first nut mentioned, but 
similarly petrified. In the collection of Gasteropods may be found shells 
of those animals also similarly petrified, all labeled as if coming from a 
group of mines. It was not till about a month ago that I found opportunity 
to search for the source of these specimens. Inquiry concerning the histories 
of the mines determined the’Glenwood mine out north of the fair ground as 
the probable source. Here again a search of the dump brought nothing to 
light, though w^orkmen said shells had been found, but that they crumbled 
on exposure to the weather. Fortunately a miner was found who showed 
me at his home shells similar to those seen at the Historical Building 
and similarly petrified. At this place also such fossils are said to be found 
in the shale immediately above the coal. It is evident there is here a 
fourth pocket where other excellent fossils of instructive material mlay 
yet be found. Ordinarily the miners do not work above the coal except when 
