BITUMINOUS AND ANTHRACITIC, 469 



paroxysmal movement, could create a current energetic enough to 

 uproot and float away nearly the whole of those vast forests, which 

 evidently grew close to the site of each seaiTi of coal, and to snap 

 off to the stumps, even the most colossal trees. Nor is it easy to 

 explain, why such a quiet submersion of the swampy forests did 

 not result in the preservation of the trees in their original erect 

 posture, by the drifting around them of the supposed river sed- 

 iments. It is fair to infer, that so long a line of coast as we con- 

 ceive bordered the Appalachian ocean, if we may judge from 

 the great longitudinal extent of some of our coal-seams, was 

 not destitute of rivers, and we are therefore constrained to admit 

 that some amount of sedimentary matter must have entered the 

 sea in that manner ; but at the same time, we have only to notice 

 the striking deficiency of earthy matter in the numerous coal-beds, 

 and in many of the strata of limestone, to be persuaded, that the 

 amount of material contributed to the coal-measures by fluviatile 

 transport, was relatively inconsiderable. It may be fairly ques- 

 tioned, whether any sensible proportion of river silt, could spread 

 itself to the distance of one hundred and fifty or two hundred 

 miles seawards, over the great coal morasses of such a coast, and 

 yet we must suppose this, if we deny the above paroxysmal 

 theory. 



That the geological and geogi'aphical changes known to have 

 been caused in modern times by earthquakes, entitle us to spec- 

 ulate upon their agency in suddenly shifting the level of the low 

 tracts once occupied by the marshes and swamps of the coal- 

 seams, must, I think, be conceded. Few geologists will deny 

 the probability of frequent changes, in the carboniferous period, 

 analogous to that which took place in the great plain at the mouth 

 of the Indus, in the year 1819, It is mentioned in Mi". Lyell's 

 Elements, that " extensive flats bordering the Indus, sank down, 

 and for many years after, vessels were forced through the boughs 

 of the tamarisk ti'ees, still standing erect."* 



Should the foregoing theory, based on the complicated statical 

 and dynamic phenomena of the Appalachian coal strata, be cor- 



* Lyell's Elements, Vol. II, p. 136. 



