6 The American Geolof/ist. July, 1896 
uiulei- consideration ilo not att'eet tlie question (»1' niode of for- 
mation or conversion of one kind of coal into another. 
5. Arenaceous- or (frarel/i/ character of the Coal Measures 
of Peiuisi/lrania. A glance at the ])ublished columnar pit 
sections of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey (Anthracite 
regions) will reveal the well known fact that, taken as a 
whole, the Coal Measures are extraordinarily siliceous in 
composition, i. e. the bulk of the rocks are comj)osed of sand 
grains, quartz and feldspar fragments and of rounded peb- 
bles, the latter occasionally amounting to boulders in size.* 
Not only are the roofs of the coal seams frequently of 
conglomerate or grit, but the floors also, and even the "part- 
ings" in the coals here and there consist of quartzose grits, 
quite pebbly in places. Thus we find the character of the 
covering up or sealing down sediments of these anthracite 
beds is such that the process of their deposition points rather 
to one of rapidity, suddenness and depth or thickness, than 
to tardiness or a keeping back of roof-forming materials as 
soon as the respective accumulations of the vegetable matter 
were finished or ready for burial. 
6. Fish horizons on coal seams and their bearing vi>on the 
origin of Pennsylvania antliracite. We ma}^ take it for gran- 
ted that when a carbonaceous shale enclosing numerous fish 
remains, shells, etc., forms the uppermost layer of a bed of 
coal, as is very commonly the case, the inference is that the 
coal deposit was not suddenly and completely buried beneath 
sediments on the completion of the vegetable matter accumu- 
lation, otherwise no time or conditions would be allowed for 
the fauna to get there and occupy the waters for long periods, 
as they evidently did, before the invasions of mud or sand 
followed. No fish beds have been discovered or reported atop 
of any of the Pennsylvania anthracite seams. f And they 
seem to be just what Stevenson's theory would call for if his 
deferred burial of the coal material actually obtained in that 
portion of the Pennsylvania coal field. And when we get 
*Cf. Trans. Man. Geol. Soc, vol. 22, pt. 2. 
"|"The author has not even heard of any such animal remains ever 
noticed anywhere in the eastern Pennsylvania coal fields. 
