304 



COAL 



stone, the mountain limestone, and the coal scries, are 

 all disturbed ; being elevated, undulated, and fractured, 

 in various ways, as I have often already been eom- 

 pelled to notice. And it must similarly be recollected, 

 that a new order commences with the rnagriesian lime- 

 stone and the red marl ; or that they are placed on 

 the coal series and the inferior strata, in an uncon- 

 formable position, while the lower substance also pre- 

 sents that conglomerate structure which, every where 

 throughout nature, accompanies a new order in rocks. 



Hence the first three deposits have often been 

 united, as forming one class, and as if they had under- 

 gone but one disturbance, common to the whole. 

 But from the former remarks on this subject (Chap- 

 ter xxi.), it is plain that the coal series is really dis- 

 tinct, in time and production, from the inferior strata; 

 and hence cannot be always truly conformable to them, 

 though the last general disturbance is common to the 

 whole. If geologists have not, practically, always 

 discovered the complicated relation between the coal 

 series and these inferior strata, it is because this pre- 

 vious view of that necessity has not been taken. The 

 examination is not easy; and where great disturbances 

 occur under such circumstances, it is natural 4o be 

 content with that which the previous opinions seem 

 to point out as the real state of things. It is to bv 

 expected that future observations will confirm the 

 facts thus stated as necessarily existing. 



With respect to other and remote countries, it is 

 diiHcult to anticipate what the exact position of this 

 series, if it really exists in other parts of the world, 

 will be. That, at this particular period of the globe, 

 it should have been produced in Britain, or here, and 

 in a small portion of Europe, only, is not probable ; 

 as it would form an exception of such magnitude and 



