GEOLOGY. 331 



is noticeable both in the chemical and physical proportion of the coal from 

 the surface to the point where atmospheric influence ceased. Near the sur- 

 face it is friable and lustreless, and becomes harder and more brilliant as it is 

 penetrated. Near the surface, too, it is nearly destitute of gases, the propor- 

 tion of volatile matter increasing as the coal improves in appearance. Of 

 this. Mr. X. was assured by personal examinations of specimens from the out- 

 crop, and from deep in the mine. On the contrary, where the outcrop was 

 covered by water, the coal will be found hard and light, and containing nearly 

 its normal quantity of volatile ingredients. The higher illuminating power 

 of the gases of cannel would naturally follow from the preservation of the 

 volatile elements of wood by its continual submersion in a hydrogenous 

 liquid, and the presence of a portion of animal matter. That a resinous 

 vegetation could have given its inflammable character to cannel he thought 

 improbable. He had found unchanged resin in bituminous coal, but never in 

 cannel. The greater relative proportion of earthy matter in cannels would 

 be an almost necessary result of covering the vegetable matter with a fluid 

 heavier than air, and of greater power of transporting sediment. The ap- 

 pearance of the fossils previously noticed also seems to prove the aqueous 

 nature of the origin of cannel. Pieces of cannel from England correspond 

 with those in which these fossils are found. Shells, too, are not unfrequently 

 found in the middle of a stratum of cannel. Among the vegetable remains 

 found in this coal by Mr. Xewberry are stigmarice, roots, and rootlets of trees 

 which grow in coal-producing marshes, roots so characteristic of the under 

 class of the coal seams, and others. Strata of ordinary bituminous coal usu- 

 ally consist of layers of greater or less thickness of brilliant bitumen, having 

 a conchoid al fracture, alternating thin layers of what is generally canned 

 sometimes containing so much earthy matter as to become bituminous shale ; 

 at times these layers of cannel are of considerable thickness, and form an 

 important part of the stratum. This arrangement is attributed to the variable 

 quantity of water covering the coal marshes the cannel-like layers being de- 

 posited during the prevalence of higher water, when the fishy remains could 

 naturally have become a portion of the stratum. 



OX THE MAXTJFACTUKE OF COAL OILS. 



TTe should fail in an essential part of our record of modern improvements 

 did we neglect" to notice an extensive business which has developed within 

 a few years, viz. the manufacture of illuminating and lubricating oils from 

 bituminous coals. An interesting paper on the subject of " Kerosene " oil, 

 manufactured in New York from Cannel coal, was presented to the American 

 Association at its last meeting by Prof. Clum. This oil promises to be of great 

 importance to the manufacturing interests of the country, both as an illumi- 

 nating and lubricating agent. The same may be said also of the mineral oils 

 manufactured by the Breckenridge Coal Co. of Kentucky, which have been 

 accepted for trial by the General Government for lighthouse purposes. The 

 introduction of these oils has already greatly reduced the prices of fish and 

 sperm oils, and for many purposes the latter are entirely superseded. 



