Year: 1869

together, and forms two layers OF
pure thin coal. 1t is very hard to
assign this last species of plants a
true position in any botanical division,
and yet they form the main body OF
the vegetation of that period The
roots of this species of trees have been
described under the name of Stigmaria
as they were believed to constitute a
distinct plant. But in many instances
the root and the stem have been found
in a very good state of preservation
and being in contact proves beyond
a doubt, the unity of the parts as one
plant. Besides the species of animals
found in the rocks of the preceding
ages, there arc many species unknown
to them, and one genera of articulates
the Trilobites though found in abund-
ance in the Silurian and Devonian
Systems, occur here only in few
species, whilst above this not a single
species occur, as ! before mentioned.


Notwithstanding the many fossil
plants and animals that have been
found in this formation, there are not
few who disbclieve the fact that
coal is of vegetable origin. For those
sceptcs we have still more positive
proof II We take a piece of partially
charred anthracite coal, and placing
under the miscroscope we find it
divided into an innumerable amount
Of little cells. The portion ofthe coal
forming the cells, is somewhat lighter
in appearance, than the matter sur
rounding il; and being silica is not
destroyed by subjeclion TO moder-
ate heat. The portion surrounding
the cells is carbon, the mainly conslit
ucnt portion of vegetable existence
and exists almost in pure state in
Plumbago or Black Lead, Bitumen,
Charcoal and the Diamond. The
latter being pure crystallizod carbon.
These cells are arranged in ducts that
lie side by side, as they did centuries
ago in the woody fibre Of the plant
This evidence is not so clear in btu
minous coal, ii being softer, does not
preserve its texture 80 well. ! might
say in conclusion Of my remarks on
tho vegetable origin Of coal, that
anthracite or non bituminous coal, is
almost pure carbon, and bituminous
coal contains considerable oxygen and
hydrogen. IL is the hydrogen in
conneXiOn with carbon that produces
the flames when it burns; for fame is
nothing less than the carburreted
hydrogen, which is evolved from coal
in our gas works, and conveyed to
our houses by means OF pipes.


shall not enter into an explanation
OF the term mineral to coal, seeing
that the latter is of vegetable origin,
but will leave that for your own in
vestigation, for you will find that the
term is very appropriate from the
chemical changes that have occurred
in the transforming of vegetation into
the coal that composes tue most i'm
portant of Gods gifts to man.


/ remarked that coal was Of various
degrees Of thickness and quality, and
shall attempt to give you my explana-
tion Of tho manner and the time EN-.
ployed in making coal. In the peat
bogs which are numerous in this and
other countries we have incipient coal
beds. They are formed by plants,
the principal ono being Sphagnum,
that grow upward, and by continual
decomposition below, aud living ex-
tension upwards, bogs arc formed very
often of great thickness, sometimes
exceeding thirty feet. 1t has been
estimated that Massachusetts con ntains
l20 millions of cord, and those bogs
cover one-tenth of ireland, and extend
from small collections TO immense dis
tricts, from ten to fifty miles in length
and two TO three in breadth. Now
these peat bogs need only to be su bject
TO the pressure ofrocks, and little
time to develope themselves into true
coal beds. For they contain all OF
the clements, and were it possible for
veriicle movement of the portion OF
the oarth's surface that they occupy,
they might instantly be subject to
inundauon, and thereby sufficient
matter would in time no deposited j
over them, as TO mako them present
the same appearance that exists in
every seam Of coal. Now this is the
manner in which coal was formed,
only that there were alternate up
heavals and deprossions at different
periods Of time, corresponding to the
amount of rocks that exist between
two successive seams.


Regarding the time that il must
have occupied in forming this system
no matter how rapid was tho decay
and growth of the vegetation, II must
not have taken years, but ages. Al
the present state of growth and dc.
cay, Liebeg says: it would require
ono hundred and seventy years to
make one inch in thickness Of anthra.
cite coal, and to accumulate a strata
of sixty feet, would require period ol
one hundred and twenty-five thousand
four hundred years. Aud TO accumn


late the whole Coal Formation at the
same rate, would take such an amount
of time that my arithmetic fails in
calculating. For We may recolleoi
that this system is nearly three miles
l in depth, and would require hundred.
of billions of years in forming it.


At the close of the Coal Formation
the eastern part Of North America
was above the ocean, a part composing
at least two. thirds of it, whilo the
western part was occupied by a large
i Mediterranean Sea, such sea as IL
the Silurian and Devonian extended
over the eastern part also. This vast
continent had not that diversity oI
mountains that render il capable OF
producing the varied vegetation thai
now makes il valuable and beautiful
The Rocky Mountains did not yel
rear their bold and blackoned cliff
to look down on the tenantess waste
nor did our vine.clad Alleghaniei
stretch along the eastern ledge of oul
continent, a perpetual barrier to th'
cncroachments to tho Atlantic. Bu


now instead of finding tho coal on