The best place to look for plant fossils in northern Illinois, except for the strip mines of the Mazon Creek area, is probably in the spoil heaps from shaft mines. The Colchester (No. 2) Coal has been extensively mined by the longwall method. This technique causes the mine roof to settle when the coal is removed, and the haulage ways are kept open by removing the roof shale. Inasmuch as the roof shale is the Francis Creek Formation of the Mazon Creek area, it may contain abundant plant-bearing concretions. The shale is not everywhere fossiliferous, however, and in many spoil heaps fossils are rare. [Illustration: Tools for Collecting] Collecting Equipment The collector of plant fossils should have the following tools and equipment: ① Hammer—a bricklayer’s hammer will work well. ② One or two chisels, preferably one large and one small. ③ Knapsack or basket in which to carry specimens. ④ Newspapers and a roll of tissue paper for protecting fragile specimens. ⑤ Pencil and paper for labeling specimens and making notes about the collecting locality from which the fossils came. Much of the value of a particular fossil lies in knowing precisely where it was found and the layer of rock it came from. Rules of Courtesy When entering a collecting area every collector should observe several rules carefully: ① For your own protection get permission to enter and collect on any private property. Such action also will help to assure your welcome if you wish to come back again. ② Leave the gates exactly as you find them, open or closed. Do not climb fences that may break or sag under your weight; crawl under or go around. ③ Don’t litter, even though far from any house or other buildings. Do not disturb the owner’s equipment, stock, or planted areas. Handling Specimens [Illustration: uncaptioned] The most successful way to split an ironstone concretion is to set it on edge, long axis horizontal, on any fairly large rock and strike the upper edge with the hammer. If the concretion is one that developed around a fossil nucleus, it generally will split along the plane of weakness, revealing the fossil. Sometimes one side of the concretion will break off in the middle, in which case the remainder should be tapped firmly but gently on the upper edge until the fossil is completely uncovered. Pieces of the broken half should be glued together neatly with waterproof cement so that the entire specimen can be retained. Fossils embedded in shale may be recovered by the same method or by repeatedly tapping a chisel inserted along the bedding plane. If the fossil is exposed, the matrix can be chiseled away by slow, painstaking effort. The usual method of wrapping plant-bearing nodules is to place the end of a sheet of newspaper between the two halves of the nodule, fold the paper over the nodule, and roll it up in the sheet. [Illustration: How to Wrap a Fossiliferous Concretion]