318 LIGNITES. 



imperfect. Yet, by thus giving the geography of the 

 chief known lignites, these places will form points of 

 reference in case of error, and in lieu of the descrip- 

 tions which are yet wanting. Future and more accu- 

 rate geologists will hereafter he enabled to separate ill 

 described cases from the genuine coal, and complete 

 what I must leave imperfect. It must always be re- 

 membered, that as these deposits can be distinguished 

 by the accompanying strata, so, with strong resem- 

 blances, there is this distinction between them and the 

 true coal series, that whereas the latter rarely contain 

 marine remains, these are common in the lignites. 



Deposits of lignite coal occur abundantly along the 

 western declivity of the Jura, in the south-west of 

 Germany ; abounding chiefly in Westphalia, and be- 

 ing wrought in the Buckeburg, as they are also in 

 Coburg and to the east of Spittelstein. Near Qued- 

 linberg and Pirna, the same substances are scattered 

 through the sandstones. It appears that, at Coburg, 

 they belong to the quadersandstein, as seems also the 

 case in other parts of the tract above mentioned ; so 

 that we must perhaps adopt a division prior to that of 

 the lias and oolithe. In Istria, they occur in the oolithe 

 abundantly, passing into coal at Carpona and in the 

 island Veglia, where they are wrought for the use of 

 the Trieste steam boat. It is to the same series that we 

 must refer what is called the Kimmeridge coal of Eng- 

 land, consisting rather of bituminous shale than of true 

 lignite, and also that of the Cleveland district of York- 

 shire, Such too is the coal field of Brora in Suther- 

 land, of which the singular position on the granite has 

 been noticed elsewhere, and further, that of the West- 

 ern Isles of Scotland, occurring in the lias, or in that 

 and the oolithe conjointly. 



These deposits call for a somewhat more particular 



