HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



\i: 



THE STORY OF A PIECE OF LIGNITE. 



By J. E. TAYLOR, E.G.S., Etc. 



ERSONALLY, 

 I do not think 

 I am such a 

 familiar object, 

 in England at 

 least, as some 

 of my fellow 

 In some parts 

 of Germany and Switzerland, 

 and even in Devonshire, I am 

 w much better known under the 

 ♦ .•' nL^ficsTx* name of " brown coal." The 

 name I have assumed at the 

 head of this story indicates, 

 although under a Latin form, 

 my vegetable origin. Of my 

 affinity to the common house- 

 hold coal I will speak pre- 

 sently. My appearance bears 

 out my Latin name, for few 

 would mistake my mineral- 

 ized woody structure for any- 

 thing else than it is. Notwithstanding my dull 

 brownish look, and the general absence of that 

 pitchy glossiness which characterizes true coal, I 

 have been formed under very similar conditions to 

 the latter." My history is not less romantic — nay, 

 in my belief, is even additionally so, on account of 

 my'having come into existence at a comparatively 

 recent period, geologically speaking. The epoch of 

 my birth is distinguished by the appearance of 

 many genera of animals and plants which are still 

 in existence. These, it will be seen presently, by 

 their occurrence' in other parts of the world besides 

 Europe, indicate the immense amount of physical 

 changes which have caused them to take up geo- 

 graphical stations so far away from those in which 

 they were evidently first created. 



The epoch of my birth was briefly referred to by 



the last speaker. It was the Miocene period, during 



which Europe was dotted by great lakes of fresh 



water, and covered with a flora more magnificent 



No. 79. 



than any she had been clad with before since the 

 world began. The scanty species of the Carboni- 

 ferous period pale before the gorgeous varieties of the 

 Miocene. The flora extended to the very North Pole 

 itself ! 1 am speaking of a period when no ice-cap 

 existed in Arctic regions ; but when Iceland, Spitz- 

 bergen, and Greenland were clad with evergreen 

 shrubs; of a time when the Old World and the New 

 were connected by an extension of land, of which 

 the Japanese islands, the Aleutian islands, and Van- 

 couver's Island are now the only existing outliers. 

 Central Europe alone maintained no fewer than 

 three thousand species of plants ! Of these, eight 

 hundred species of true flower-bearing plants, 

 besides ferns, &c, are found fossilized in the strata 

 called the " Molasse." 



The temperature of this period was considerably 

 higher than it is now, although not near so elevated 

 as in the previous Eocene epoch. The nature of the 

 plants found fossilized indicates an elevation of 

 about sixteen degrees above what it is now. Hence 

 with physical circumstances suitable, one cannot 

 wonder that a luxuriant vegetation covered every 

 available spot of the dry land. As to the causes of 

 this increased temperature, and, still more, of the 

 extension of the Miocene forests to the very North 

 Pole itself, I can only speculate. It is generally 

 thought, however, that they were due to astrono- 

 mical conditions of the northern hemisphere, partly 

 similar to those now affecting the southern, and 

 also to such an arrangement of physical geography 

 as ensured the highest degree of heat and genial 

 moisture. But even these conditions will not ac- 

 count for plants to which light is such a necessary- 

 stimulant, growing within the Arctic circle, where 

 there is a continued darkness for months together. 

 I must give it up, seeing that eminent scientific 

 men are in a quandary about it. All that I can say 

 is that no geographical agencies alone will account 

 for the physical circumstances of the Miocene 

 epoch. 



The Miocene strata, as I think I have before 



H 



