COAL. 299 



presence of organic remains in these rocks, indicates 

 the analogous origin of the carbonaceous matter. 



The coal series which has been called Independent, 

 and the chief object of this chapter, forms the great 

 repository of that mineral in Britain, though not the 

 exclusive one ; and its leading character is to occupy 

 a geological position superior to the old red sandstone, 

 and inferior to the new one, or to the red marl. 

 Though I may have failed in truly classing under this 

 head some of the foreign instances here quoted, partly 

 from want of accurate descriptions, and partly from 

 unwillingness to doubt, without sufficient reasons for 

 doubting, this is the noted deposit to which the 

 general remarks formerly made on revolutions of the 

 globe, apply. From those general reasonings are there- 

 fore excluded all coal beds which follow the red marl; 

 though I have not attempted to do that in specific 

 instances in this chapter. The term independent is mis- 

 placed ; since it may be equally used, as it has actually 

 been, for the superior combustible deposits, equally 

 independent, under very different geological positions. 

 . As the beds of coal are found accompanying and 

 alternating with stratified rocks, so they are also dis- 

 posed in strata parallel to them. These strata are in 

 every respect analogous, in their forms, dispositions, 

 and accidents, to those of the rocks with which they 

 occur. In position, they are horizontal, or inclined 

 at various angles, often highly elevated, as is the whole 

 series ; circumstances which often lead to their dis- 

 covery, or facilitate their working ; but which also 

 frequently carry them out of the reach of mining 

 operations. To name instances of these various posi- 

 tions, would be superfluous ; and if practical miners 

 have dwelt with undue stress on these and the other 

 accidents to which they are subject, it must be attri- 



