496 NOTE ON THE ORIGIN OF " KEROSENE SHALE," 



Arguments for and against Coorongite Theory. — The origin of 

 Coorongite being not yet understood, it is useless to speculate as 

 to a possible similar origin for the kerosene shale, though the 

 latter certainly possesses some striking points of resemblance to 

 the former, especially if allowance be made for the elimination 

 of oxygen, which would take place in Coorongite were that 

 mineral subjected to such prolonged conditions of heat and 

 pressure as the kerosene shale has undergone. 



Suggested Theory oj Kerosene Shale having been formed from 

 Si^orangia, Si^ores, Pollen, or Seeds. —The minute lamination of 

 kerosene shale, and the uniform distribution throughout it of the 

 minute resinous-like particles, taken in conjunction with the fact 

 that fossil leaves are regularly interlaminated with the shale, 

 especially where it is at all inferior, lead the author to infer that 

 the finely divided state of the kerosene shale was of primary and 

 not of secondary origin. If the resinous-like particles were 

 originally in a finely divided state, the most natural assumption 

 is that they were spores, sporangia, pollen, or seeds. A micro- 

 scopic examination of the clay shales associated with the cannel 

 seam at Homeville shows them to contain abundant spherical 

 bodies, about 1-30 th of an inch in diameter, which are probably 

 sporangia. Somewhat similar bodies are observable in inferior 

 portions of the kerosene shale, and possibly even in purer 

 varieties. It is possible, therefore, that the oily character of 

 these shales may be chiefly due to the local accumulations of 

 showers of minute spores or sporangia or seeds, with a certain 

 admixture of peaty material from the swampy ground in which 

 the coal was found. 



What was the nature of the plants which supplied these small 

 spherical bodies is at present unknown. Probably they did not 

 belong to the genus Glossopteris, for had they been derived from 

 a plant so universally distributed as this is throughout the Lower 

 Goal Measures, kerosene shale would probably be less restricted in 

 its occurrence than we now find it. Perhaps these minute bodies 

 were derived from plants which grew on the hills which fringed 



