MR MILNE ON THE MID-LOTHIAN AND EAST-LOTHIAN COAL-FIELDS. 28:^ 



it, and which, of course, exhibited at that spot a bulging out or protuberance 

 below, whilst it was perfectly flat or level in its upper part. * It is not possible 

 to explain such facts in any other way, than by supposing that these strata were 

 deposited at the bottom of a body of water, which, in certain parts, or at certain 

 periods, was still and tranquil, and which, in other parts, or at other periods, was 

 agitated by currents. 



I might, in reference to the same inquiry, have alluded to the vegetable re- 

 mains, and especially the large trunks of trees found imbedded in the sandstone 

 strata, and which must have been transported to that situation by some power- 

 ful agent. But it is quite unnecessary to do more than barely allude to this 

 additional palpable proof of the existence of an aqueous medium, at the bottom 

 of which these sandstone strata were deposited. 



I might, in like manner, point to the shale and limestone strata of the dis- 

 trict, as proving incontestibly the existence of a large body of water ; for, that 

 they were all deposited in water, no one can doubt, who but looks at the innu- 

 merable shells, zoophytes, fishes' teeth, and other exuviae with which they 

 abound. 



I have not yet spoken of the formation of the coal-seams pai-ticulai-ly and 

 specially ; — though, as being parts of a series, all the other members of which 

 are proved to have been deposited at the bottom of a sea, it is a fair conclu- 

 sion that they must have been formed by the same agent, though in circumstances 

 somewhat different. There are some geologists, however, who maintain, that the 

 vegetables which compose, or are found imbedded in the substance of coal, have 

 actually grown and flourished on the very spot where we now find them ; that the 

 vegetable ingredients of coal have been accumulated, not at the bottom of the 

 sea, but on the surface of dry land, either in the same manner as peat, or in ex- 

 tensive marshes. I am not now going to enter into all the details of this con- 

 troversy. I wish only to mention one fact, which appears to me to go far to put 

 an end to the controversy altogether. I allude to the discovery in the coal-seams 

 of this district of fishes' teeth, spines, and scales. The discovery was first made 

 by Lord Gkeenock about four years ago, and he exhibited a number of specimens 

 to the British Association. These specimens, I observe fi-om his Lordship's paper, 

 as published in the Transactions of the British Association, were found in the 

 shale or blaes which lies immediately above and in contact with the Jewel Coal, 

 at Sir John Hope's colliery near New Hailes. But similar remams have also 

 been found in the substance of the coal itself; — and not merely in the Jewel 

 Coal, but in another seam of coal, at the same place, called the Splint Seam, 

 which, at that colliery, is about 33 fathoms above the Jewel Coal. These teeth, 

 scales, and spines, are generally about four inches down below the upper surface 



* See page 261. 



