82 STORIES OF EARTH AND SKY 



" When all the growth of many years lay in a 

 mass decaying, and the earth's crust sank a little, 

 no more trees grew, and water began to spread 

 layers of mud over where our jungle was, as 

 water covers the leaf mould on a pond's bottom. 

 Then the mass took the first step of its long 

 journey from wood to coal land, changing at 

 each stopping place, and in some cases lagging 

 behind and never reaching the end of the great 

 transformation. 



"At the first stop the blackening mass was 

 what House People call peat, a mossy, spongy 

 sort of stuff that may be cut in blocks, and 

 smoulders slowly as it burns. You may find 

 this change going on in many places even 

 to-day. 



" One day the earth crust heaved, rose, and 

 overlapped the jungle, as scum folds over on a 

 boiling pot; so heat and weight were added to 

 the mass, from which some gases escaped and 

 others boiled down to make new substances. 

 After a long wait, compressed and molten, we 

 grew browner and more solid and became what 

 is called lignite, or brown coal. This has such 

 a sulphurous breath that it chokes House People 

 when they burn it. After this, harder and 

 blacker we grew, and straightway stepped from 



