Erdtman • Introduction to Pollen Analysis 



209 



tile, pottery, porcelain, china, and only product saved. Tlie other prod- 

 other articles made from clay. ucts, except for some used for heating 

 5. Burning cement. the oven, are wasted. But when coal 

 Carbonization of coal produces is carbonized in a modern slot-txpe 

 coke, tar, light oil, ammonia, and coke oven, the gas, tar, annnonia, and 

 gases. When coal is carbonized in an other chemical products are saved, 

 old-fashioned beehive oven, coke is the 



QUESTIONS 



1. Write a paragraph on the composition 

 and mode of formation of coal. 



2. Justify the statement made elsewhere 

 that "coal is fossil sunlight." 



3. What are the differences between bi- 

 tuminous and anthracite coals? 



G. Erdtman 



Introduction to Pollen Analysis 



Reprinted with the permission of the pub- 

 hsher from Introduction to Pollen Analysis, 

 Waltham, Chronica Botanica, 1954. 



It has been claimed that skillful 

 hunters of old could bring their prey 

 down even if they caught only a fleet- 

 ing glimpse of its shadow. But still 

 more remarkable appear the perform- 

 ances accomplished today by the pollen 

 anah'St. Out of pollen from crumbled 

 clay or minute pieces of peat, taken 

 from bits of earthenware or a stone 

 axe, may be constructed a picture of 

 the primeval forests which flourished 



in the region at the time when the pot 

 or axe dropped into the bog. Tliis is, 

 however, not the whole stor\'. In a 

 carcfullv investigated region it is also 

 possible to determine the relative, in 

 certain places even the absolute age 

 of a pollen-bearing sample and to as- 

 certain its place in a s}stem of cur\'es, 

 illustrating changes in vegetation and 

 climate, during ages long past. 



Pollen analysis is a young science. 



