STUDIES IN THE RHODE ISLAND COAL MEASURES, 
BY REV. EDGAR F. CLARK.* 
The persistent and original investigation of any natural science 
gilds the page of human life. It not only contributes to science 
but conserves and augments mental strength and enjoyment. 
While passing with hurried march from church to homestead, our 
steps have been halted by the Carboniferous rocks of the Rhode 
Island Coal Measures. The Carboniferous flora of this area pos¬ 
sess unique beauty, variety, and significance. The dynamical 
geology of the Rhode Island coal-belt merits the close attention of 
all scholars. The forces that acted with more uniform results in 
Pennsylvania at the close of the Carboniferous Period are here 
marked by great Changes. As the result, this dark mantle of 
Mother Earth is sadly wrinkled by synclinal and anticlinal, mak¬ 
ing the study of its dynamics difficult but deeply interesting. The 
forces that operated to produce the ocean-beds and the ocean-boards 
are doubtless the chief cause of these disturbances. Before this 
part of the continent settled into the repose of more modern eras, 
conflicting forces raged along the New England coast, producing 
alternate emergence, and submergence, changing coast lines and 
marshes, until this ancient topography had been subjected to great 
variations. The southern limit of the Rhode Island coal-belt 
is hidden beneath the adjacent marine waters. 
At Sachuest Neck, near Newport; at Rocky Point; at Bristol 
and elsewhere, the Rhode Island coal area is lost beneath the bay 
waters, leaving no well defined southern and eastern limits. 
Indications point plainly to the belief that the Carboniferous 
marshes extended across Narragansett Bay from Bristol to Rocky 
Point, with varying deposits of coal material. The basin of the 
Blackstone is largely laid in the same coal-belt that crops out at 
Portsmouth, Cumberland, Warren, Providence and elsewhere in 
Rhode Island; at Attleborough, Mansfield and Worcester in 
Massachusetts. 
•Abstract of paper read before the Society, on November ist, 1&S3. 
