Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1882-05-27
How Coal wns Formed.

LoiuOh htduohhy.
How Coal was Formed.
The coal fire in the CRATE sparkled and
cracked and sent its sharp-pOinted
flames up through the dark mass, giving
even the smoke lurid hue.
We all sat gazing into the fire, max
ing fancies and thinking our own
thoughts, when Uncle John interrupted
the silence by saying:
"And so, at last, this coal fulfills its
mission. Perhaps you do not know how
coal is formed?"
We all drew our chairs nearer as
Julia exclaimed: do tell u.s."
"Well," began Uncle John, strOking
his long white beard, many thousand
years ago, in fact, more years than any
of you can count even in whole life
time, there grew vast forest. There
were no North and South American Con-
tinents, nor even an Eastern and West
ern World. An exceedingly small pOr-
tiOn Of the globe was land, the rest was
wide sea. In many places the ocean
was shallow, and as years went by the
sand and drift matter filled up the shall
low places, until they became great
swamps. In these swamps grew great
forests.
"The great amount of carbonic acid
gas that mingled with the air, and the
high degree of warmth, along with the
to grow very rapidly. The pine trees
grew to immense size; ferns grew as
high as trees; and sort of club moss,
that in our forests never grows over
three feet high, in those forests grew
ai0htv nd nj natv foot hiOh
"AlOng the damp, warm valley Of the
Amazon, in South America, and in the
tropics, grow our richest and most pro-
fuse vegetation, but even that is moth
ing compared to the ancient forests that
grew from the swamps. In these for
ests the trees and vegetation grew so
rapidly that they crowded upon each
other. Being too much crowded, much
of the vegetation died down as rapidly
as it had grown. Thus year after year
the old forest died down, and above it
grew the new, until one forest was piled
upon another.
after thousands of years, gradually.
the whole surface of the land began to
sink, until the sea once more flowed over
the place where forests had grown. And,
again, after more thousands of years,
the drift matter and sand again filled
up the shallow places, and other forests
grew in new swamps. AS years went by;
they, too, were submerged in the sea.
This continued for numberless years.
Between each layer of decayed forests
there was layer of sand and mud and
shells and drift matter that finally
hardened into rock, forming the lime
stone or sandstone that is found in our
coal mines. Miners can tell just how
many times the coal beds have been
submerged by the number of layers Of
sandstone or limestone.
"MOst of the trees of that ancient for
est were pine trees. Coal contains tar
and pitch and rOsin, which it received
from the decayed pine. Coal Is pure
carbon and Is black because carbon is
black. ALI plants contain great deal
of carbOnic acid. When plants breathe
or decay they give off large quantities of
carbOnic acid gas, hence, this carbon be-
comes a part of the coal.
'The constant pressure above, and the
water, causes this decaying vegetation
to take first the form of peat. Peat is a
soft, spOngy sort of coal, and it is much
used by the poor yeOmanry of England
and Ireland for their fires. After the
peat has lain many thousands of years
under great pressure and deeply buried
in the dark bosom of the earth, it grad
ually and slowly hardens into the coal
we use in our CRATE.
Sometimes, in splitting open block
of coal, you can plainly see the impress
of beautiful and perfectly formed leaves,
branches and twigs and vines. Our
coal is really. then, nothing but a de-
cayed forest. 1t has only been within
the last few years that coal has come in
to extensive use in Europe and the
United States. Not until the timber Of
the forests were fast disappearing did
coal come into demand, and yet it has
been stored away in measureless abun-
dance generations before we we're born"
IN. Y. Tribune.