Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1858-05-11
For the Enquirer.
LETTERS
ON THE RESOURCES. .iNPROpEMETTS, IND CON
MERGE OF rIRGIyI4.

No. XXII.
E0al-i,x origiR and jDrmatiou-Ihc Richmond Ra.
SINS.
We have glanced rapidly over the extent of the
Virginisn coal fields, their availabities, &C., and we
now linger with a few numbers over the details OF
this important feature in resources since coal il
The most useful Of our mineral deposits, and therefore
the most interesting. On the origin and formation OF
coal, however, we must be brief.
All coal deposits partako of ths basin form, and
most of them are oolong, or boat shaped some are
deep, narrow tronghs basins others are nearly no.
rzontal, with but slight declinstons towards their
centres, but al Invariably, contain evidence of hav.
ing been original basins capable of retaining water
without visible e'.ls o escape, except by overflow
ing, from our al 'o the present day. Yet coal s
mined rs f. Z low the sea level, and many thou.
sands l20U0 o. Zee above II; and in all probability,
basins of coal axir; 90,0ol feet below "a they are
found 1000 feet above the sea level Such being
an established fact, rar must have been an agency
in the production of coal. The second fact we arrive
at in this connection s that coal originated from We
gstabe or woody, carboniferous matter. It is char
coal formed by natural processes-not from such
wood, such forests as we see around us now-not
from the driftwood of the Mississippi, or even the
Amazon but from tho vast and luxuriant forests that
sprung from the tepd waters Of torrid cline. The
towering fer9, the gigantic calamit the vast and
spuugy sGgmarsa, and all the numerous fossil fora
that have been gathered by the indeiatgabe zeal Of
geology from the submerged forests of snteduvan
ages.
Hugh Miller, in his Old Red Sandstone, thus brings
before us, in imagination forest of the vegetable
life of which we only now find the remains buried
up in the coal measures thousands of feet below the
surface.
ave see before low shore, thickly covered
with vegetation. Huge trees of wonderful form
etand out far into the water; there interve
ming beach; thick edge of reeds, tall as the mass
of pinnaces, along the deeper bays, like water
Gags at the edge of the lake" "Whst strange forms
Of vegetable life appear in the forest behind !
Can that be n cubmoss that raises its slender height
for than fifty feet from the so Or can those tall,
pamike trees be actually fernes, and those spread
ing branches mere fronds7 And then those gigantic
reeds! are they not mere varieties Of the common
horse tails Of our bogs and morasses msgnhed come
sixty or hundred timesl' "There is an amazing
luIuriance of growth all around us. Scarce can the
currents make way through the thckets of aquatic
plants that rise thick from the muddy bottom; and
though the sunshine fss bright on the upper boughs
Of the forest beyond, not ray penetrates the more
than twilight gloom that broods over the marshy
platform below. The rank steam of decaying vege-
,ation forms thick blue haze that partially Oh
scures the underwood. Deadly lakes of carbonic
acid gas have accumulated in the hollowsi there is a
silence all around uninterrupted save by the splash
of some reptile ish that has risen TO the surface in
pursuit Of its prey, when sudden breeze stirs the
hot air and shakes the onds Of the giant ferns or the
catkins of the reeds"
1.-TWO facts before us that coal 10 formed in basins
and from vegetable matter, present ample founda-
toon for the theory OF Goa! formations, since the
precise ray in which coal formed from vegetable
matter must forever remain theory Yet our theory
s one, in which natural results are obtained from ra
tural causes and We can satisfactorily explain the
why and because.
question, to the Richmond coal fields, we can easily
comprehend the whole process Of coal mah7nS and
coal formations generally.
great basin or valley, uneven at the bottom, and
surrounded in every direction by granite walls, and
filled with water, is here presented. ln this basin
sediment of mud or clay. soon forms from various
causes, and out of this soil or mud rank forest OF
gigantic vegetables arise. The edges of the basin
soon presents a growth unrivsed, even by tropics
waters and from the depth OF the epld lake the end
ess Lojdodendron and the tall vinelike trees of sub
marine forests, shoot mp thousand feet high, until
they reach the surface upon which their broad leaves
are spread. The club mosses the ferns, the grasses
and the vines-lke the water lilly of to day-fll up
the intermediate space, and soon the lake or BASIN
presents one immense bog there is scarcely room for
a iish to force its way through the tangled forest
which fills the WATER the broad leaves of the ferny
palms spread their vast canopy over all, twning and
until new surface is formed. and on
which new soil accumulates from the inflsora
tribes and the grasses and thousand other causes,
until the forests below sink with the superintendent
weight and 4 new forest arises from the clays and
mud which cover the old one-and 30 on, perhaps for
thousands of ages, until great coal fields were
formed being charred by the mate heat OF the COM
pressed vegetable matter or the carbon contained
Here we have every cause and every effect pro.
duced by natural agencies and here we find the BOT
tom slate or clay, which invariably lies below each
coal seam, and in which We always find the fossil
roots of the coal aorn here too lie the petriGed
mains of the scaly inhabitants of the waters, firmly
imbedded in the supporting states or clay strata. we
never find the roots of trees or plants IN the upper
states of coal seams the roofs OF mines. There,
however we find the numberess impressions OF trees
and viues and branches and leaves, and the amphi'
bious reptiles of the same era.
To account for the thick masses Of sandstone
which usually accompany the coal strata and the
overlying rocks need only point to the deep chan
nes our rivers have formed in their course from the
mountains and ask what has been done with the mil
lion upon millions of tons OF debris which have been
carried from the high lands to the low lands, and
which have eveled the mountains II 1t mas not hlled
up the vaes7 In other way, than the one we nave
hjnted at, can the coal formations be explained
satisfactorily, since the "drift" theory and that
of forests submerged by violent inundatons
and many others, are 10 evidently erroneous
that no intelligent miner acquainted with 'he
pecuisrties of coal seams, can for moment
rive them credit and hence the general scepticism
b;ch nrsyais among that class in regard to the Ve'
getsble origin of coal.
Rpt us mnst hasten on and from what we know 10
bs facts. wa must conclude that coal was produced
from Aquatic forests in quiet, natural way; ana
we must also presume that it was formed as II now
Iss in even and wide extending beds, or in broken
and irregular basins. The great convusIons of na-
ture occurred before the coal era. In the Richmond
coal field, the "upthrows" and 'downthrows' and
"troubes," and other irregularities peculiar 10 All
deen coal formations and particularly TO those which
rest on the uncomfortable gneous rocks, as in the
present csse are generally supposed to be due to vol
cspc causes effected since the formation OF the coal.
But such cannot be excepted, when we CONSIDER Inc
manner 10 which the coal now exists! Here we find
little or no coal deposited on the face of "down.
throw" or in reality granite cliff but, at the foot
Of the "downthrow," we find the coal double and
even treble its usual thickness, not in confused and
broken mssses but "bench' upon "bench,' with in
tervenng states, and conornable stras, as regular
az when first deposited in its plastic and primitive
.,..o Nathan do find tnuch IL sny coal on tne