The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1882-07-28

The coal fire in the crate sparkled and
cracked and sent its sharp-pointed flames
up through the dark mass, giving even the
smoke II lurd hue.
We all sat gazing into the fire, making
fancies and thinking our own thoughts
when Uncle John interrupted the silence by
saying:
| And so, AT last, this coal iultls its mis-.
sion. Perhaps you do not know how coal is
formed? 2"
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 n whole lifetime, there grew Il
vast forest There were no North and South
American Continents, nor even an Eastern
ant Western World. An exceedingly small
portion 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 shallow places, until
ihcy became great swampS. In these grew
| great forests.
The great amount OF carbonic acid gas that
mingled with the air, and high degree of
warmth, along with the constant moisture,
caused these forest to grow very rapidly. The
| pine trees grew to immense size ferns grew
| rs high MS trees; and n sort Ofcub moss, that
| III our forests never grow over three feet high,
| i'll those forests grew eighty and ninety feet
| high.
Along the damp, warm valley of the ANA
| Zon, in South America, and in the tropies
grow our richest and most protlIse vegetation,
| but even that is nothing compared to the an
clent forests that grew from the swamps. In
these forests the trees and vegetation grew so
| rapidly that they crowded upon each other
| Being too much crowded, much of the yepe.
tation died down as rapidly as it had grown
nttn
| 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 thou.
sands of years, the drift matter and sand again
| fllcd up the shallow places and other forests
| grew in new Swamps. As years went by,
| they, too, were submerged in the sen. This
continued for numberlcSS years. Between
| each layer of dccayed forests there was a law
rr OF sand and mud and shells and drift ma.
ter that finally hardened into rock, forming
the limestone oI sandstone that is found i'm
our coal mines. Miners can tell Just how
many times the coal beds have been Submerg
| ed hy the number of layers OF sandstone or
| limestone
Most of the trees of that ancient forest
were pine trees. Pine contains tar and pitch
and great deal of resinous matter. Coal
also contains tar and pitch and rosin which
il received from the dccayed pine Coal is
pure carbon, and is black because carbon Is
black All plants contain great deal of
carbonic acid. When plants breathe or decay
they give off large quantities of carbonic
acid gas, hence, this carbon becomes n part
of the coal
"Thc constant pressure above, and the
water, caused this decaying vegetation 10
take first the form Of peat. Peat is u soft
spongy sort of coal, and ii is much used hv
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 gradually and slowly hardens into the coal
we use in our CRATE.
Sometimes, in splitting open Il block of
coal, you can plainly see the impress of beau
titul and perfectly formed leaves, branches
and twigs and vines. Our coal is really, then,
nothing but Il decayed forest. 1t has only
been within the last few years that coal has
come into extensive use in Europe and the
United States. Not until the timber of the
forest was fast disappearing did coal come
into demand, and yetit has been stored
away in measureless abundance generations
before we were born. ~ Y TiiJuDc