298 COAL. 



plumbago of the primary strata, no less than the anthra- 

 cite, might as well have originated in vegetables, as 

 that each of them should owe an independent origin 

 to elementary mineral carbon. But I need not 

 attempt to illustrate further a difficulty of this nature. 

 Yet I must here notice a fact of recent occurrence, 

 and which may prove of great importance in the ge- 

 neral history of all coal, as well as of the merely pri- 

 mary, should it have been truly stated. This is the 

 existence of extensive beds of anthracite in Pennsyl- 

 vania, found in what is said to be quartz rock by those 

 who have examined the ground. If there is no error 

 in this report, it will prove the views here held out ; 

 from the analogy of quartz rock and the secondary 

 sandstones ; while it will thus also indicate another 

 resemblance between those, and further tend to esta- 

 blish an extensive vegetable creation occupying some 

 parts of the antient globe ; connecting, at the same 

 time, the more doubtful coal of gneiss and the old 

 rocks, with that of the secondary strata. 



I must yet notice here, some deposits of coal, of 

 more recent origin than the primary, but which do 

 not belong to the proper coal series. They are occa- 

 sionally found in the old red sandstone in Britain ; 

 while a doubt may rest on some parallel observations 

 on the continent of Europe, from the confusion often 

 made between that stratum and the red marl. This 

 coal is partially wrought in some parts of Scotland ; 

 and in Arran, it has a character approaching to that 

 of anthracite coal. Thus also coal has been found in 

 the mountain limestone, but in insignificant quantity. 

 Both of these admit of the same remarks as primary 

 coal ; but they perhaps serve to confirm the origin 

 assigned to that, by establishing a perfect gradation 

 of this substance through all the strata; while the 



