18 STEVENSON— FORMATION OF COAL BEDS. [April 21. 



among the members of the mineral kingdom. A long interment fol- 

 lowed, during which a course of Chemical changes, and new combi- 

 nations of their vegetable elements have converted them to the min- 

 eral condition of Coal." 



On an earlier page, Buckland referred to the existence of erect 

 stems in the Coal measures rocks : he was convinced that none of 

 those recorded, aside from some near Glasgow, could have grown 

 where they were found. 



From this date onward the discussion respecting erect stems, 

 became increasingly important. The facts and the conclusions are 

 alike contradictory. It is better to pass by this matter for the pres- 

 ent and to treat it apart. 



Sternberg"' did not accept the hypothesis that coal was formed 

 from peat. He thought that one should conceive of a forest in the 

 ancient time, when neither man nor plant-eating animals existed ; 

 that this forest grew for an indefinitely long period in a warm, 

 humid climate ; that the offal of buds, leaves, seeds, fruits and 

 decayed stems accumulated on the ground ; many generations of 

 plants grew, one on the other, and so a mass, consisting of mold 

 from wood, fruits, seeds, leaves, with complete examples of smaller 

 plants, would be produced, whose surface would be covered with 

 still living vegetation. Conceive now of a cataclysm, when a hurri- 

 cane casts down the living plants and is followed by a flood, loaded 

 with sand and mud — thus one has a true picture of the mode in 

 which the overlying deposits of the stone coal are formed. Cases 

 are rare where one finds erect stems of trees between two coal beds, 

 losing themselves above and below in the coals. 



The water-cover would hold the mold in place, would bring 

 about decompositions and changes in the different materials and 

 would cover the whole with clay and sand. It is unnecessary to 

 borrow carbon from the air or water in order to get a coal forma- 

 tion, since in this interval, as well in the dry as in the wet way, 

 humus and other acids, bitumen and coal itself have been produced, 

 as occurs even to-day in peat bogs. The material existed in abun- 



^ K. Sternberg, '" Versuch einer geognostisch-botanischen Darstellung 

 der Flora der Vorwclt," Siebenstes und achtes Heft, Prag, 1838, p. 88. 



18 



