OF -NORTH A-HERIC.N. 
to 
the forms of gigantic statues , rivals of those of Karnac and Nineveh. The celebrated Chimney- 
Rock, on the route to Fort Laramie, is entirely of this formation. 
1 say : « Jc suis dispose a regarder la formation houillere du comte de Chestei field , pres de Richmond, 
comme etant plus ancienne que \' Oolite Inferieure, et appartenant soit au Keuper, soil an Lias, et plutot 
a cotte dernierc epoque , comme rindique le petit nombre de poissons que I’on y a trouve jusqu’a pre- 
sents. I was induced to refer it to the Lias by the Memoir of Lyell and Bunbury {On the Structure and 
probable age of the Coal-Field of the James river, near Richmond Virginia', in the Quarterly Journal of the 
(ieol. Soc. of London, vol. III., page 261; 1847.); and also by Prof. Agassiz determination of the fishes, 
who told me that those species were indicative of the Lias. 
In my Geological map of the United States, published at Boston in July 1853, 1 maintain the same 
determination of Liassic formation, with the remark that perhaps it mav bo Keuper. But having seen the 
Trias and Jurassic with their superposition and details in the Prairies and Rocky Mountains, in September, 
October, November and December 1853, 1 do not hesitate to refer the coal-basin of the vicinity of 
Richmond, Virginia, to the Keuper, and not to the Lias, and even less to the Inferior Oolite or Great Oo- 
lite. 1 have developed my opinions at some length in my Resumd explicatif eCune Carte Gdologique des 
Etats-Unis (See: Bulletin de la Soc. Gdol. de France, deuxieme serie, tome XII., page 872 et 873; Paris, 
21 Mai 1855.). Lately — January 1857 — I have received from the author: Geological Report of the Mid 
land Counties of North Carolina -, by Ebenezer Emmons; New-York, 1856; and I have read with the great- 
est pleasure in Chapter XXX VIII. and XLII. of this very interesting and valuable work, that Emmons is 
of the same opinion; giving paleontological facts so evident and conclusive as regards the North Carolina 
and Virginia Coal-basin, that doubt is no longer possible, even without taking into consideration my 
discovery in the Far West. 
-Not having the pleasure to be personally acquainted with Emmons, 1 was entirely ignorant of his 
discovery of New Red Sandstone (Permian and Triassic) fossils in the Deep and Dan river basin, until 
I received his work; and I congratulate Mr. Emmons on his discoveries, which are certainly more im- 
portant and interesting than mine; being satisfied myself to join him in his own conclusions, which are 
the following: « According then to my present view, the Deep and Dan river (-North Carolina) series ad- 
mits of the following divisions: 
j f. Red sandstones, marls, etc. 
Trias. < 2. Black or blue slate, with plants and a coal seam. 
1 3. Conglomerate. 
Drab colored sandstones. 
Calcareous and bituminous shales. 
Permian. I Coal, fire-clay, argil, oxide of iron. 
Red Sandstone, sometimes gray and drab. 
Conglomerate. 
«lf fossils are to be relied upon as tests of age, the Richmond coal-field is formed of rocks which 
were deposited contemporaneously with the upper scries on Deep river, beginning with the upper Con- 
glomerate; or in other woi'ds, the Richmond coal-field is Triassic and the Deep river Permiano. (See: 
Geological Report of Korth Carolina, by E. Emmons, pages 273 and 341.) 
Further in a new volume published in May' 1857 and entitled: American Geology, part VL, Emmons 
announces the discov ery of three lower jaws belonging to a species of insectiv orous mammal in the Chat- 
ham coal field, in North Carolina. This mammal of the Permian epoch is certainly the most ancient 
that has been found until now; it is described by Emmons under the name of Dromatherium Sylvestre, 
and is found in the same beds with the remains of Thecodont Saurians, far below the strata containing 
impressions of leaves that belong to the species found in the European Keuper. 
-IM 
