92 PEOF. T. EUTERT JONES ON COAL. 



some conditions it becomes much like coal. So also lignite, though, 

 retaining wood- structure, has lost much of its nitrogen and hydrogen, 

 and, like peat, often contains a considerable proportion of muddy 

 material. 



5. The Origin of Coal and the Area of its Formation. — Let us think 

 about the way in which coal was made. Everyone knows now, 

 from mere school-teaching, that coal resulted from the accumula- 

 tion of vegetable matter ; but it is rather difficult to form a correct 

 notion of how and where that came about. First of all the learner 

 must be more or less geological, and must forget his " geography" 

 altogether. The old topographical conditions have little or nothing 

 to do with the present. Long before the materials which form the 

 present surface of our earth were accumulated and arranged, there 

 were different lands and different waters. Some of these were 

 wide seas bordered by low sloping lands covered with marshes, 

 jungles, and forests ; and the sea for the most part was shallow. 



Knowing the trend and extent of the area on which coal was 

 formed in this part of the world, we have good indications where 

 it is now to be found, however deep it may have been let down 

 below the siirface, and however much it may have been bent, 

 folded, and broken by the crushings due to the contractions of the 

 Earth's crust. 



The map (exhibited) was prepared by the late Mr. R. A. C. 

 Godwin-Austen to show the geography of the West-European 

 region at the time when the old coal was being formed (Carboni- 

 ferous period). It indicates a great bay or gulf in the western part 

 of that sea where Western Europe is now, and the borders of 

 which, I'eaching along through what is now the South of England, 

 were covered with vegetation which fonned coal. 



The word jungle seems to express the condition of things 

 which then existed, where trees grew very closely together as 

 in tropical forests. From time to time they were thrown down 

 by whirlwinds and their own overgrowth, forming great masses of 

 inteiTuixed plants of all sorts and sizes. These densely wooded 

 and root-entangled jungles were interrupted here and there with 

 bogs and marshes, sea- creeks and lagoons, sluggish streams and 

 rushing rivers, each and all affecting either the soil, the vegetable 

 growths, or the ruins of the forests ; whilst successive oscillations 

 of the land, sometimes slow and regular, sometimes sudden and 

 overwhelming, brought in the sea to dominate for awhile until 

 sand and mud accumulated to form new areas for maritime 

 jungle-growths and inland forests. 



The climate was warm and damp. Yegetation grew rapidly ; 

 the leaves, branches, and stems, also the fruits and seeds, or rather 

 cones and spores, fell so thickly season after season that the 

 material, layer upon layer, soon underwent decomposition, and 

 for the most part chemical recomposition. Sometimes, prob- 

 ably according to seasons, the fallen wood lost its hydrogen and 

 oxygen whilst exposed to the air, and became merely black touch- 

 wood or natural charcoal. At other times the Mhris of the forests 



