LIGNITES. 321 



wrought; and it abounds also at Soissons, Epernay, 

 Laon, St. Paulet, and some other places in France. 

 That of Annecy in Savoy, which is also wrought for 

 coal, is referred to the same position : as is that of 

 Putzburg and Lobsann, and that of Cologne, so well 

 known and so often described. The principal deposit 

 here, is thirty feet in thickness; and this locality is 

 remarkable for its peculiar pulverulent lignite, so well 

 known in painting. 



The immense deposits of Styria, and those found in 

 the middle of the Alps, are supposed to occur chiefly 

 in the sands of the plastic clay; yet some examples of 

 this nature appear to belong to a purely fresh water or 

 lacustral origin. Those which abound in certain parts 

 of Germany, as near Cassel and Meissner, are con- 

 ceived to appertain to a formation of this nature, 

 though lying in contact with the magnesian limestone ; 

 a situation, as I have formerly shown, not incompa- 

 tible with such a geological position. Those also 

 which are found in the basin separating the Alps and 

 the Jura, at Vernier, Paudex, Vevay, near the lake of 

 Zurich, at Oeningen, and elsewhere, including all the 

 steinkohles of Switzerland, appear to be the deposits 

 of a fresh water lake in antient times, as might be in- 

 ferred from former remarks respecting this great lo- 

 cality. Those of Sheppey, the Isle of Wight, Sussex, 

 and other analogous places in England, must, on the 

 contrary, be referred to the marine deposit, the plastic 

 clay. Thus the lignites above the chalk would admit 

 of being divided in the manner which I formerly pro- 

 posed as to the tertiary deposits ; as they must be 

 hereafter, when geologists shall have investigated 

 these with more accuracy and discrimination. 



Having thus given such localities as seemed suffi- 

 cient for examples, or for indicating the general posi- 



VOL. n. Y 



