The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-08-26

may remain, but the details Of their form, their
relative proportions, and their associates are all
altered. The tree fern forest Of Tasmania or
New Zealand gives one only a faint and remote
image OF tho vegetation NJ the ancient world.
Then. too, the study Of a coal Geld inculcates q
lesson of geological history, which invariably re-
ours at whatever point IL lie taken up; the lesson
Of the almost infinite slowness OF the modihcs-
tlon of living forms. The lines Of the pedisrees
Of living things break OF almost before they
begin TO converge. Yet one more curious COM
alteration ia suggested; namely. that nature IL
never In n hurry and seems TO have had always
before her ewes the adage: Keep n thing long
enough and you will find n use for IT, She has
kept her beds Of coal many millions of years
without being able to find much use for them:
she has sent them down beneath the sea, and
tho sen BEASTS could make nothing Of them;
she has raised them UP into dry land
and raised the black veins bare. and
still for ages and ages there was no living thing
on the face Of the earth that could see my sort
of value in them; and It was only the other day,
SO to speak, that she turned n new creature out
Of her workshop who, by degrees, acquired sum
Client wits To make fire, and then TO discover
that the black rock would burn. MIR. Huxley
deems IL probable enough that the rrimeval
Briton, when Cesar landed. nineteen hun
dred years ago. may have known that the
strange black stone. Of which he found
Jumps here and there In his wauderings,
would burn. and so help to warm his body
and cook his food. But nature had still 10
wait very many centuries for n full return of
the capital shc had invested In the ancient club
MOSES. At last the eighteenth century ar
arrived and with II James Watt. Tho brain Of
that man was the spore out OF which was devel-
oped the modern steam engine, and all the pro-
digious trees and branches OF modern industry
which have grown therefrom. or this growth
and development coal Is as essential n condition
a. carbonic ncid is for that of n club moss.
Wanting coal. Englishmen could not have
smelted the iron needed to make their engines,
nor have worked their engines when they had
got them. Take away the engines, and the huge
towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire would van
ish like n dream. Manufactures would give
place TO agriculture and pasturage. and not ten
men could live where now ten thousand are
amply supported. What becomes. however.
of the coal which Is burnt in yielding
this interest upon natures Investment Heat
and light como out OF II. and II we
could gather together all that goes up the chin
ney and oil that remains In the crate OF a thor
oughly burnt coal fire. we should find ourselves
in possession of quantity Of carbonic acid, water,
ammonia, and mineral matters exactly equal In
weight to tho coal. But these are the very mat
tiers with which nature supplied the club MOSES
which made the coal. To her is thus paid back
principal and interest Mt the same time, and she
rcinvests the carbonic acid, the
water, and the ammonia in new forms of life,
feeding with them the plants that now exist.