sent the different strata, and combining the analogous nomenclature of various systems. This most valuable donation was made to the Academy on condition of its never being taken from the library, and it cannot fail to be most useful for consultation and reference. At the time of his death, Mr. Taylor was engaged in preparing a paper, for the Journal of the Academy, on the fossil plants which he had discovered in his recent visit to New Brunswick. The fossil fishes which he also discovered there, he left with his friend, Prof. Agassiz, who was to describe the new ones for him. All these Mr. Taylor intended should be deposited in the collection of this Academy, to which he had already added many valuable specimens. Mr. Taylor was the third son of Samuel Taylor, of New Buckenham, in Norfolk, England, and a descendant of Dr. John Taylor, the author of the Hebrew Concordance. He was born at Hinton, in Suffolk, Jan. 18th, 1789. His brothers and cousins were men generally distinguished by their great literary and scientific acquirements. His younger brother, Edgar Taylor, was a distinguished member of the legal profession in London, and an accomplished scholar. He was the author of several works, and remarkable for his numerous learned reviews, published in the most prominent periodicals in Great Britain. His cousin, Richard Taylor, was the well-known and able editor of the Philosophical Magazine, which has been the leading scientific Journal of England for the last twenty-five years. John and Philip are highly distinguished as mining engineers. The great services Mr. Taylor had rendered science, have been acknowledged, by his being made a member of the principal Societies in England and this country, which embraced those branches of knowledge which he cultivated. He was elected a member of the Geological Society of London, and of the Society of Civil Engineers, of that city. In this country he was a member of this Academy, as before mentioned; of the American Philosophical Society; of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania; of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists, of the Franklin Institute, &c. &c. In a rapid survey of Mr. Taylor's scientific labours, it would be difficult to give any thing more than a brief and imperfect list of his writings. In this sketch will not be introduced his professional reports, which occupied the chief part of his life, and which were generally executed in such a systematic and perfect manner, as to remain models, worthy of imitation by all engaged in such works. Whether his beautiful map of the Ordinance Survey, executed in 1813-14, was the first, is not certain, but it seems to bear the earliest date. He subsequently published, in the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, "Notice of two Models and Sections of about eleven square miles, forming a part of the Mineral Basin of South Wales, in the vicinity of Pontypool," (1830.) "On the Crag Strata at Bramerton, near Norwich," (1823.) "On the Alluvial Strata, and on the Chalk of Norfolk and Suffolk, and on the Fossils by which they are accompanied," (1823.) In the Magazine of Natural History he published, in 1829, a paper called the "Progress of Geology," which was followed, in 1830, by another, the "Introduction to Geology," which was succeeded by "Illustrations of Antedeluvian Zoology and Botany," and "Notes on Natural Ob jects observed whilst staying in Cuba." An article entitled "A description of a Fossil Marine Vegetable, of the family Fucoides, in the Transition Rocks of North America, and some considerations in Geology, connected with it, with an engraved specimen of the Fucoides Alleghanienses." "A Description of an Ice Storm at Philipsburg, 1832." "On the Geology and Natural History of the North-eastern extremity of the Alleghany Mountain Range in Pennsylvania. These papers were illustrated with many beautiful drawings and sections. In the London and Edinburgh Phil. Mag., March, 1837, occurs a notice of a vein of Asphaltum Chapapote, called in the vicinity of Havana, bituminous coal. In the Philosophical Mag., London, an article "On the Carboniferous Series of the U. S. of North America, as to the actual position of the Old Red Sandstone in America." His first paper published in this country, was, it is believed, in the American Monthly Magazine, in 1832, entitled "Section of the Alleghany Mountains and Moshannon Valley, in Centre County, Pennsylvania." In the Trans. of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania, followed others of great interest, "On the Geological position of certain beds, which contain numerous Fossil Marine Plants of the family Fucoides, near Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa.,' (1834.) "On the relative position of the Transition and Secondary Coal Formations in Pennsylvania, and description of some transition or Bituminous, Anthracite, and Iron ore beds, near Broad Top Mountain, in Bedford county, and of a coal vein in Perry county, Pennsylvania, with sections." "Notices of the evidences of the existence of an ancient Lake," which appears to have formerly filled the Limestone Valley of Kishacoquillas, in Mifflin county, Penna." "On the Mineral Basin or Coal Field of Blossburg, on the Tioga River, Tioga county, Penn." "Memoir of a section passing through the Bituminous Coal Field near Richmond, in Virginia." "Review of the Geological phenomena, and the deductions derivable therefrom, in 250 miles of sections, in parts of Virginia and Maryland. Also, notice of certain Fossil Acotyledonous Plants in the secondary strata of Fredericksburg," (Vir.)* In the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society he published Memoir of the Character and Prospects of the Copper Region of Gibara, and a Sketch of the Geology of the N. E. part of the Island of Cuba." "Notice of Fossil Arborescent Ferns of the family Sigillaria and other Coal Plants, exhibited in the Roof and Floor of a Coal seam in Dauphin county, Penn." "Notice of a Vein of Bituminous Coal (Chapapote) recently explored in the vicinity of the Havana, in the Island of Cuba." (This was jointly with Mr. Clemson.) In Silliman's Journal he published, "Notes respecting certain Indian Mounds and Earthworks in the form of Animal Effigies, chiefly in the Wisconsin Territory, U. S., with Plans and Illustrations." "Notice of a Model of the Western portion of the Schuylkill, or Southern Coal Field of Penn., in illustration of an Address to the Association of American Geologists, on the most appropriate modes for representing Geological Phenomena," (with illustrative sections.) In the Journal and Proceedings of the Acad. Nat. Sciences, "Table constructed from a few Meteorological Notes, chiefly in regard to the daily Mr. Taylor was the first to identify the Fredericksburg sandstone with "the oolitic group of Europe," and in this memoir (Trans. Geol. Soc. of Penna., Vol. I., p. 325, 1835,) he figures the genera of fossil plants of Fredericksburg, assigning them all to that formation. xviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. temperature of noon, on the East Coast of the Isthmus of Panama, Port Royal, in Jamaica, and on the return voyage to New York, for the month of October, 1849." "Substance of Notes made during a Geological Reconnoisance in the Auriferous Porphyry region next the Carribean sea, in the Province of Veraguas and Isthmus of Panama," 1851, with maps. Also, a pamphlet on the Anthracite and Bituminous Coal in China, and several articles in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine and in some Reviews. At the time of his sudden illness, he was engaged in a paper entitled, "On a Vein of Asphaltum of Hillsborough, in Albert county, Province of New Brunswick," which he has left in an unfinished state, but which was so far complete as to justify its publication in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 1852. CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION. Proportionate areas of coal land in Europe and America, Proportionate areas of coal formations in the United States, Page |