24 RELICS FROM THE WRECK 



the sandstones, and of the shale or slaty clays, and their 

 being frequently impressed with the ripple marks of the 

 ancient ivaves, show that almost the whole of this im- 

 mense mass of deposition was accumulated under the 

 influence of comparatively tranquil water ; if so, how amaz- 

 ing must the fhue have been during which these deposits 

 were formed ! 



The roofs of some of the coal-beds exhibit great beauty 

 of appearance, and a vast profusion of plants. " The 

 finest example I ever witnessed/' says the Rev. Dr. Buck- 

 land, " is that of the coal mines of Bohemia. The most 

 elaborate imitations of living foilage upon the painted ceil- 

 ings of Italian palaces bear no comparison with the beau- 

 teous profusion of external vegetable forms with which the 

 galleries of these instructive mines are overhung. The 

 roof is covered with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, en- 

 riched with festoons of most graceful foilage, hung in wild 

 irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The 

 effect is heightened by the contrast of the black color of 

 these vegetables with the light ground of the rock to which 

 they are attached. The spectator feels himself transported, 

 as if by enchantment, into the forests of another world, 



" So wondrous wild, the whole might seem 

 The scenery of a fairy dream ;" 



he beholds trees of forms and characters now unknown 

 upon the surface of the earth, presented to his senses al- 

 most in the beauty and vigor of their primeval life; their 

 scaly stems and bending branches, with their delicate appa- 

 ratus of foilage, all spread before him, little impaired by 

 the lapse of countless ages, ajid bearing fruitful records of 

 extinct systems of vegetation, which began and terminated 

 in times of which these relics are the infallible historians."* 



* The plants, which occur in the manner so beautifully described by 

 the Doctor, are generally not in direct contact with the coal-bed, but at a 

 little distance above it. 



