MODE IV. LIGNITE. 59-5 



feet, a lignite was found much impregnated with 

 pyrites, as are most others of the Aisne. In this 

 bed of decomposed wood, which is about three 

 feet six inches in thickness, are found pieces of 

 fossile wood, partly carbonised; some bones of 

 animals, seemingly of wild kine; amber in round 

 or angular fragments, some quite transparent 

 and sometimes imbedded in pyrites. Such vene- 

 rable relics must not be confounded with peat, 

 which commonly proceeds from the decompo- 

 sition of graminous and other small vegetables, 

 though trunks, hazel nuts, &c. be occasionally 

 found. Faujas supposes with Patrin, that coal 

 itself may often consist of wood brought by the 

 sea, and deposited in recesses at considerable 

 elevations, when the globe was studded with pri- 

 meval islands. The numerous sea plants, mo- 

 lusks, and oily carcases of so many fish that 

 daily perish, also contribute, in his opinion, to 

 this product 5 but this theory has many diffi- 

 culties. 



Professor Hollman of Gottingen, published in 

 1784 an account, which had before appeared in 

 the Philosophical Transactions, vol. 51, of some 

 hills or mountains, as he calls them, near the 

 city of Munden, and in that point of land which 

 is washed at their junction by the rivers Werra 

 and Fulda; one is about 1150 feet in height, 



