H2 TSE ORIGIN OP CREATION". 



This is a fact patent to every mineralist ; and there is another 

 i'act disclosed by chemistry, that both the carbon, and the 

 other main ingredient of coal, the hydrogen, could have come 

 together from no sources but the earth's atmosphere and water, 

 and only by the process of vegetable growth or plant life." 

 This was written before hydrogen was generally known, or 

 admitted to be mineral. One source of the mineral, therefore, 

 was from water, but this could not have supplied the coal with 

 the quantity found in it. Prof. Rogers himself gave the cause 

 when he said "mineral oils and juices soaked through the 

 decayed vegetation." 



Our view of coal formation is as follows, and we think it 

 will be found to tally with all the facts that have been ascer- 

 tained relating to the subject, and with true natural law. 



In the Western Prairies of America we have a vegetation 

 continually growing, decaying, and growing again. During the 

 time this has been progressing, an immense depth of vegetable 

 soil has been deposited. It is probable that the material of many 

 coal beds, though not of all, was first formed in this manner. 

 Parts of trees are often found fossilized in the coal, but they are 

 all in an upright position, or rather at right angles to the strata 

 of coal. This shows that, comparatively speaking, the .growth 

 was of inferior vegetation, such as ferns, grasses, and bushes. 

 They were probably more luxuriant, however, then than 

 now ; and in order to account for the great depth of the 

 deposit, many fields by convulsions may be supposed to have 

 doubled on themselves. 



In the strata of the Nova Scotian shale and coal fields, are 

 found seams containing charcoal ; showing where fires had run 

 ever the prairies, just as they do at the present time. As the 



