24 
discern the structure of the rotting woods. One of the beds of ~ 
cannel coal in Yorkshire contained nothing but the spores and 
vesicles (sporangia) that had escaped from the cones of the trees, 
the bed thus presenting an amazing problem as to how the spores 
came to be deposited in such countless myriads. No wonder 
that such coal was used for the manufacture of gas, for the spores 
of such cones (lycopodium) were so bituminous that they flashed 
when thrown across a burning candle, and they had thus been 
used for the production of stage lightning. Fire clay, from 
which encaustic tiles were obtained, was formed from the mud 
that underlay the coal seams, being the mud upon which the 
plants lived prior to their being formed into coal. 
Commenting upon the abundance of life that existed during 
the period of coal formation, Professor Jones said that, amongst 
others, there had been found some 30 species of reptiles, 150 
species of fish, and between 30 and 40 species of insects, as well 
as crustaceans, of which there were some representatives at the 
present day. Turning to the coal distribution, Professor Jones 
said that coal fields extended from the West of England through 
Belgium, to Westphalia, Germany, and on into the upper parts 
of Scandinavia, coming back through Yorkshire, Cumberland, 
round by the borders of Wales, and across into Ireland. It had 
been suggested some time ago by Mr Godwin-Austen that in 
Paleozoic times coal jungles existed on the northern side of a 
ridge extending from Somerset on through Kent, and that coal 
could probably be found along that line. This theory had in part 
been verified by the discovery of coal at Dover, a seam four feet 
in thickness being found at a depth of 1,930 feet. The discovery 
was a very important one as confirming Mr. Godwin-Austen’s 
view, although the exact localities of the coal beds and the 
directions in which they extended could only be determined by 
bormgs. In conclusion, Professor Jones said that as the 
sunshine caused the growth of leaves and wood, so 
the fossil wood represented so much sunshine, or force 
ot light and heat, and these were again evolved in the burning of 
coal and gas. Thus in coal was stored up a force that saved the 
wear and tear of human muscle and sinew, and did away with the 
fearful toil which makes simple slaves of men, and enabled them 
to gain their daily bread by easier means. The great earth dis- 
turbances that had brought up the strata in which coal was 
stowed away, and enabled man to work the coal they contained, 
certainly must at times have included earthquakes, once thought to 
be evidences of God’s anger, but really systematic agencies bring- 
OOOO 2 
