52 On the Coal-field of Sutherland. 



1820. Feet. Inches. 



January 15 

 August 1 



It remains to inquire into the proper geological relations of 

 this deposit, to which I have hitherto applied the popular 

 term coal-field. I consider it to be that lignite formation 

 which belongs to the oolite limestone*, and this is proved by 

 the character of the strata, as also by the general nature of the 

 organic remains contained in them : this latter species of proof, 

 however, being one on which I lay somewhat less stress than 

 conchologists, particularly in the comparison of strata distant 

 in geographical place, and for reasons assigned in a paper 

 on Organic Remains in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. 



The lias, and the oolite, therefore include its limestones, 

 and among these presumed unvarying rocks we must seek the 

 different beds here found, as well as we can. The minuter 

 parts of this task I gladly leave to those who, as they can feel 

 no satisfaction till they have reduced the whole world to the 

 model of England, can, I hope, always find, if it is even in 

 their imaginations, the means of satisfying themselves. 



I apply the term lignite to this formation, without hesitation ; 

 and the reasons are given in a paper intended for your journal 

 hereafter f. And as I shall then have occasion to enter on 

 the whole subject of these higher coal deposits, I will not touch 

 further on it now. I need only say, that the presence of com- 

 plete coal does not remove this or any other such deposit 

 from that division, as the chief coal deposits of the continent 

 belong to it, and as the essential character is found in the 



* This was pointed out already in this journal, in a paper on Lignites, where 

 I also traced rapidly the general extent of the same series in Scotland, as it had 

 been formerly described in detail, in my account of the Western Islands. 



f This paper is the one above alluded to. 



