332 LIGNITES- 



I cannot admit that which has been hitherto received 

 as satisfactory respecting the former, I must regret 

 that I cannot make my own views as clear and con- 

 vincing as I should desire ; for want of sufficiently 

 accurate and extensive observations- 



With respect to those beneath the lias and oolithe, 

 the explanation seems that which is equally applicable 

 to the coals of the old red sandstone and mountain 

 limestone. Transported fragments may account for 

 some; while as I shall soon show that beds of peat 

 are produced by marine plants, there is as little diffi- 

 culty in accounting for partial beds of coal in these 

 deposits, as for the greater ones in the regular coal 

 series. But this theory will not apply to the deposits 

 o"f coal in the oolithe and the green sand ; so often 

 equalling in extent and importance those of the true 

 coal series, while also resembling them in so many 

 other particulars. Nor can I see that the received 

 theory of transportation will account for all of them ; 

 while it must be recollected that this is but a repeti- 

 tion of the same thoughtlessness or ignorance which 

 had attempted to explain the great coal series in a 

 similar manner, and which I hope the present observa- 

 tions on the whole of this subject have shown to be 

 unfounded, even without a formal refutation. 



The imbedded plants are chiefly terrestrial ; and 

 they are too often deposited in the same manner and 

 perfection as in the great coal series, to admit of the 

 belief in transportation. They must have been pre- 

 served where they fell: nor indeed could anght else 

 account for accumulations capable of forming such 

 beds of coal. He who can imagine vegetable mat- 

 ters, of whatever nature, transported from the land to 

 the sea, there sunk, there so often preserved in their 

 characters, and there accumulated in partial beds, 

 must have forgotten, as usual, to enquire of causes ; 



