IT.] THE COAL IN THE FIRE. 107 



north-western France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany 

 were then under the sea; that Denmark and Norway 

 were joined to Scotland by a continent, a tongue of 

 which ran across the centre of England, and into 

 Ireland, dividing the northern and southern coal- 

 fields. But how far to the west and north did that 

 old continent stretch ? Did it, as it almost certainly 

 did long ages afterwards, join Greenland and North 

 America with Scotland and Norway ? Were the 

 northern fields of Nova Scotia, which are of the same 

 geological age as our own, and contain the same 

 plants, laid down by rivers which ran off the same 

 continent as ours ? Who can tell now ? That old 

 land, and all record of it, save what these fragmentary 

 coal-measures can give, are buried in the dark abyss 

 of countless ages ; and we can only look back with 

 awe, and comfort ourselves with the thought Let 

 Time be ever so vast, yet Time is not Eternity. 



One word more. If my readers have granted that 

 all for which I have argued is probable, they will still 

 have a right to ask for further proof. 



They will be justified in saying : " You say that 

 coal is transformed vegetable matter; but can you 

 show us how the transformation takes place ? Is it 

 possible according to known natural laws ? " 



The chemist must answer that. And he tells us 

 that wood can become lignite, or wood-coal, by 

 parting with its oxygen, in the shape of carbonic acid 

 gas, or choke-damp ; and then common or bituminous 

 coal, by parting with its hydrogen, chiefly in the form 

 of carburetted hydrogen the gas with which we light 

 our streets. That is about as much as the unscientific 

 reader need know. But it is a fresh corroboration of 



