BY LIOMEL C. BALL, B.E. 138 



than in Welsh anthracite and yet at the same time con- 

 siderably above that of anthraxolite as shown in the 

 subjoined tables : — 



Constituent. 



Burketown, M. F. 



Anthracite.* 



Anthraxolite. t 



i. Analytical Result (at 100° C). 



Moistui'e 

 Volatile Matter 

 Fixed Carbon 

 Ash 



4-0% 



1-8% 



90-1% 



4-1% 



ii. Recalculated composition of water — and ash — free coal. 



Volatile Matter . 

 Fixed Carbon 



98- lo/^ 



ORIGIN OF THE COAL. 



It seemed at first that the question of orgin M^ould not 

 Ije difficult to settle and that the coal, during movements 

 of the wall rock, must have been dragged into the forma- 

 tion from a bed traversed by the fissure, the carbonaceous 

 character of some of the country rocks lending support 

 to this view ; but subsequent study of the available 

 literature of the subject has convinced me that the evidence 

 is not altogether conclusive, and that there is a possibility 

 of the hydrogen and carbon having been derived from a 

 deep-seated magm£;,tic source. That is to say that the coal 

 has been produced like the Canadian anthraxolite (the 

 proximate analysis of which does not differ greatly from 

 the above) from bitumen or petroleum, the case for the 

 magmatic origin of which, long urged by French and 

 Russian geologists and chemists, has been very ably stated 

 by Mr. Eugene Coste, of Toronto. { Even if it is allowed 

 that some petroleums may be of organic derivation the 

 inorganic origin of others seems almost certain. 



* Analyses of British Coals and Coke, p, 309. 



f Ann. Report Bureau of Mines, Ont., 1896, p. 159. 



J See Journal of the Canadian Mining Institute, Vol. 12, j). '2~4. 



