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bones are well preserved. From the great number of remains of fishes 
found in this limited space it appears probable, that the limestone in 
which they are imbedded was suddenly poured into the ocean by 
volcanic agency, surrounding and sufibcating the fishes. There are, 
according to Agassiz, 127 species, which are wholly extinct; these 
belong to 77 genera, of which 38 are extinct, and 39 still living. The 
still existing genera appear for the first time in this formation. The 
beds belong to the Eocene Tertiary period, like the London clay, 
many of the fishes of which are nearly allied to those of Monte Bolca. 
W. Reed, Esq., also read a paper “ On the Bovey Tracey Coal.” 
This coal, which is considered to belong to the Middle Tertiary period, 
called Miocene by many writers, is found near the Dartmoor Hills, 
in Devonshire, and is of great geological interest. Alternately with 
clay and marl it rests in a depression of the Cretaceous system, having 
the Upper Green Sandstone beneath it. The Bovey beds consist of 
about seventy alternate layers of clay and lignite, varying in thickness 
from 4 inches to 4 feet 6 inches. The mass of the lignite appears to 
be made up of coniferous wood ; the coal field extends for eight or ten 
miles in an irregular elongated form. It is a lacustrine deposit. The 
clay and sand are derived from the decomposition of the neighbouring 
granite, and carried down by streams ; the clay is the same as that 
found in abundance in the neighbourhood, and extensively used in 
the potteries under the name of China clay. The clay in the Bovey 
beds is inapplicable to that purpose, from its being mixed with lignite. 
The lignite itself, however, is likely to become of great commercial 
importance. It may be converted into an excellent charcoal, and the 
South Devonshire Iron Company are now erecting works and furnaces 
for the purpose of smelting iron ore with it. The coal is obtained partly 
by sinking shafts, and partly by open quarries, the latter forming an 
excavation of several acres, in which the geologist may pursue his 
enquiries. From the investigations already made it would appear that 
these beds contain scarcely any traces of Animal life, but the lignite 
reveals to us a most luxuriant Flora, consisting chiefiy of subtropical 
forms. Amongst other remains there occur numerous leaves, fruit, and 
small seeds of plants belonging to a group most nearly allied to ferns, 
and several of the other forms are closely related to plants found in 
the Brown Coal or Lignite beds of Germany, which are also of 
Middle Tertiary age. 
