Ill— On the Origin of Coal. By E. W. 

 BiNNEY, Esq, 



(Read December 1, 1846.) 



The vegetable origin of Coal is now fully estab- 

 lished, and the problems remaining to be solved 

 are the following, namely, where did the plants 

 of which Coal is formed grow ? and how were 

 the strata in which it is found deposited ? 



Some years since Sir H. T. De La Beche, in 

 his Researches in Physical Geology, first alluded 

 to the great value of fossil organic remains, 

 especially those of such animals as formerly lived 

 in the ocean, in ascertaining the depth of the 

 ancient seas at the period when such beings 

 existed, and he gives a table of the depths at 

 which some recent shells are met with on the 

 coasts of England. Professor Edward Forbes, 

 in his report of the dredging of the ^gean sea, 

 supplied geologists with a mass of most valuable 

 information as to the habitats of recent shells, 

 and in a paper read by himself and Captain 



