The Natural History of a Siberian Coal. 201 
name ; it represents an accumulation of slimed remains of the 
strap-like thalli of sea-weeds compared by the author with Himan- 
thalia lorea, the brown Alga of the family Fucaceae living in the 
streak of the tide in the Atlantic ocean. The Algal nature of the 
fossil was proved by the investigation of the exterior of the lamina 
into which the coal has split on weathering, as well as by the 
microscopical examination of these plates where the female 
conceptacles with oogoniae included in them, possessing each an 
oosphere, were discovered ; in one case there was also a portion of 
a slimed, isolated antheridium. This fossil Alga allied to Himan- 
tJialia lorea is called by the author Himanthaliopsis Sniatkovi. A 
characteristic feature is the black colour of the coal in bulk ; it is, 
however, brownish red when cut into thin plates, fully recalling the 
brown colour of the Phacophyceae in transmitted light, a fact that 
makes the author suppose that the colour of the coal depends upon 
phycophacin, the dyeing matter of the brown Alga, though it is 
not verified. A microscopical examination of the slimy and time- 
hardened thalli of this brown Alga, partly converted into resin (the 
partial solution of the coal obtained by the solvents of resin supports 
this conclusion), revealed within their layers two forms of fungi. 
One form reminds one of the present-day nutcor moulds, and the 
other of the radiating mushroom fungi. There are found, besides, 
crowded accumulations of globular bodies 0 , 6 /j.-7 , 5/x in size, passing 
sometimes into sausage-like or other quite fantastic forms in 
which the author sees yeast similar to the present day, which live 
in the mucilage that trickles down the stems of the trees. Besides, 
these yeast-like organisms there occur in the slimy mass of Algae 
accumulations of more minute coccus-like bodies in the form of 
thin lamellae, flows and clusters. The author has called these 
coccus-like bodies Micrococcus niyxophilns, presupposing that these 
accumulations represent a colony of bacteria: he points out, 
however, that these coccus-like bodies do not noticeably differ from 
the minute forms of the mentioned yeast-like organisms, and he 
makes allowance that the coccus-like bodies may be spores of yeast. 
Besides the moulds, the yeast and the cocci in the sapromyxite, 
were found a radiolarian from the group of Radiolaria Acantharia 
(the first representative of this group discovered in the fossil state), 
a flagellate, a ciliate, two rotatoria and a beetle of the Staphylinoidea 
group. On the surface of the thalli of Himanthaliopsis Sniatkovi 
occur pseudo-branching threads composed of a series of cells having 
the size of 38/X-62//, and the width of 8/X-12-5yu, with distinctly marked 
