MAY v^ \m 



INTERRELATIONS OF THE FOSSIL FUELS. 



I. 



By JOHN J. STEVENSON. 



{Read April 14, igi6.) 



Peat and the Tertiary Coals. 



Prefatory Note. — In an earlier treatise/ the writer considered 

 some problems bearing upon the accumulation of coal in beds. 

 Other, but closely related, problems will be considered here in the 

 effort to ascertain how closely the fossil fuels, aside from petroleum, 

 are related to each other in their physical and chemical character- 

 istics as well as in their mode of accumulation. In preparing for 

 these studies, the writer has travelled scores of thousands of miles 

 in foreign regions to secure information respecting disputed locali- 

 ties and, in this land, he has made examinations in almost all of the 

 coal-producing states. But life is short and distances are great; a 

 man can gather little by direct study ; to secure the knowledge neces- 

 sary for intelligent discussion of the subject, he must collect and 

 compare, as far as possible, the observations reported by others. 

 This has been attempted ; several thousands of reports, notes, 

 memoirs and monographs have been read and the abstracts have 

 been digested, in so far as they contained matter bearing on the 

 problems in hand. All citations, except where otherwise stated, are 

 at first hand. 



Some may regard study after this fashion as wasted force, 

 especially because the matters involved appear to possess little of 

 economic interest ; but the labor has been performed without com- 

 pulsion and with no hope of reward, except that of criticism by 



1 " The Formation of Coal Beds," Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, Vol. L., pp. 

 1-116, 519-^43; Vol. LI., pp. 423-553; Vol. LIL, pp. 31-162. 



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