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XLIV. Some Observations on the Nature of Coal, and on the 

 Manner in which the various Strata of the Coal-measures 

 must probably have .been deposited. By George Fair- 

 holme, Esq. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 

 Gentlemen, 

 TN submitting the following observations to your notice, and 

 *■ to that of the readers of your very able and instructive 

 periodical work, should you consider them worthy of a place 

 in its pages, I am chiefly induced by the growing interest now 

 so universally taken in geological subjects, and by the high 

 importance which must always attach to such new facts, when 

 they come to light, as bear forcibly upon the science of geo- 

 logy in general : and I feel persuaded that even a departure 

 from received theories, if expressed with temperance, and 

 supported by reasonable arguments, or by undeniable facts, 

 will not have the effect of excluding from your pages opinions 

 which, if unfounded, must thus become exposed to immediate 

 refutation. 



In the remarks which I propose to make upon the coal 

 strata, I have no intention of entering upon the question which, 

 at one period, occupied so much of the attention of geologists, 

 with respect to whether that valuable substance was of vege- 

 table or of mineral origin ; for I imagine that it will be pretty 

 generally admitted that this point has already been completely 

 set at rest, by the discoveries of late years, both in geology 

 and in chemistry, and that the vegetable origin of coal is now 

 placed quite beyond dispute*. Everything, indeed, con- 

 nected with coal, seems to tend to this important truth. Its 

 immediate and invariable contact with stony strata, in which 

 vegetable substances of every size, from the minutest grasses 

 to the tallest trees, are so beautifully displayed ; its bituminous 



* I have lately had an opportunity of examining a great variety of coal, 

 and have found a distinct vegetable texture in many different specimens; 

 but the most obvious instance I have ever remarked is in the fine coal 

 from Stobart's main near Sunderland, which exhibits in the cleavage, in 

 every part, the appearance of crushed wood, like charcoal. From these 

 and other specimens, I am led to conclude that the soiling quality of most 

 coal is derived from the ligneous portions of it; and that, but for the ex- 

 istence of this substance, the clear and shining bituminous coal would be 

 as clean in the hand as any other specimen of a mineral nature. In all 

 the instances which I have observed, the transverse fracture was clear 

 and brilliant, while between the laminae the appearance of charcoal was 

 displayed on the surface of each side. — [See our report of Mr. Hutton's 

 paper on the structure and origin of coal, in the preceding volume, p. 302. 

 — Edit.] 



