The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-04-23
DIR MINERAL MRALTH.
ORIGIN OF THE COAL BEDs-ENoUGH
COAL TO LAST FOR MANY
CENTURIES.

The financial editor of the Philadel-
phia Ledqer thus discourses on the fu-
ture of the coal trade: The coal trade
of tie United States is every year ex-
tending in a ratio of increase that IS
truly encouraging and yet IN comparl-
son with the vast riches remaining un-
developed. and the greater promises of
the future, it may be said to be still in
its infancy There are few who can
think of the immense fields of coal al
ready discovered beneath the surface in
America without at once reverting to
the question, how came this supply of
( fuel 20 be garneTed in its secret cham
! bers ? In answer. it is now universally
/ conceded that all the coal beds, both bi-
/ luminous and anthracite, are of vege-
1 table origin, and the most probable the
/ OrY is that which ascribes them to sab
/ merged forests or other vegetable de-
! posits. pressed down into compact mass
es and passing through the intermediate
state OF peat, become gradually conSOll-
dated into coal. The character of the
( vegetation can be easily traced by the
quality of the deposit, and shows even a
. greater variety than that now growing
. upOn the eaTth'S surface. This Vege-
table origin is now readily detected in
! all the formations, hundreds of several
different varieties of plants, trees and
| shrubs having been discovered, a number
of which are now extinct. Some coal
beds appear to have been found by grass
es. shrubs and the shed foliage of trees,
not a structure of any size being trace
able in the mass as if the leaves and
waste foliage of forest had gradually
! accumulated in basin or lake where
the deposit had undergone a process of
. E, ,f.,f ,arhi a
stances are changed to a carbonaceous
mass similar to the peat bogs, and then
by some mighty convulSiOn of nature it
Z had been subjected to a tremendous
pressure. which gave it a new form and
character and preserved for the subse-
I Quent ages. In other formations the
traces of forests are distinctly visible.
/ Most geologiSts are now agreed that the
anthracite, semi-anthracite and bitumi-
! nous coal were originally of the same
character, but that the anthracite has
since been subjected to heat, discharg-
ing the bitumen; while some maintain
that the change is still going on, and
after the lapse of ages all the .bitumin-
Gus would in the end become anthracite.
Though geologists and scientists differ
as to the origin of hard coal. several
things appear to he well established in
regard to these peculiar deposits. The
vegetable growth on the earth's surface
which formed their foundation was of
extraordinary abundance, and at or
about the time of the change this mass
must have been completely saturated
with or totally submerged in water, the
coal being found embedded in alluvial
deposits, or coated with such tokens as
clay hardened TO slate. Settled as these
differences of opinion may be as to the
inn, I,1 &
coal, there is no reason for apprehension
of a continued supply of coal fuel for
many centuries to come yet, while
this may be admitted. there is neither
excuse nor apology for bringing it to
the surface in advance of a demand for
its proper use and at a loss of its produc-
/ ton