40 GEOLOGY. 



It has been truly observed, that "The Geologist may be considered 

 as the historian of events relating to the animate or inanimate creation, 

 previous to that period when sacred history begins, or the history of 

 man in relation to his highest destiny. Although it belongs to the 

 geologist to study the events that have occurred within his province 

 durin" 1 the more modern ages of the world, as well as those which are in 

 prosress in our day, his especial object is to unfold the history of those 

 revolutions by which the crust of the globe acquired its present form 

 and structure. The solid earth, with its stores of organic remains 

 which now rises above the surface of the sea, may be compared to a vast 

 collection of authentic records, which will reveal to man, as soon as he 

 is capable of rightly interpreting them, an unbroken narrative of events, 

 commencing from a period indefinitely remote, and which, in all 

 probability, succeeded each other after intervals of vast duration. 

 Unlike the records of human transactions, they are liable to no suspicion 

 that they have been falsified through intention or ignorance. In them 

 we have neither to fear the dishonesty of crafty statesmen, nor the 

 blunders of unlettered, or wearied transcribers. The Mummies of 

 Egypt do not more certainly record the existence of a civilized people in 

 remote ages, on the banks of the Nile, than do the shells entombed in 

 solid stone, at the summit of the Alps and Pyrenees, attest that there 

 was a time when the rocks of those mountains occupied the bottom of a 

 sea, whose waters were as warm as those within the tropics, and which 

 were peopled by numerous species of animals, of which there does not 

 exist now one single descendant." With such objects in view, and the 

 temptations so great to enter into detail upon this beautiful science, we 

 are warned by our limits to confine ourselves to a brief description of 

 the mineral kingdom, and particularly of Great Britain; and first, of 

 COAL. If we examine a piece of this substance, particularly the 

 Newcastle, we find it a compact, shining, stony body ; but there are a 

 few fragments even of a moderate size, in which we may not discover 

 some parts very like cJiarcoal, and very often with the distinct structure 

 of wood, or other vegetable matter. Such appearances are most 

 frequently observed in the slaty coal of Staffordshire, Scotland, and other 

 parts. It is stated, that in all varieties of coal found at Newcastle coal- 

 field, more or less of the fine, distinct net-like structure of the original 

 vegetable texture can always be discovered. The vegetable origin of coal 

 is further illustrated by the vast quantities of fossil plants found in the 

 sand stones and shoals, which are interstratified with beds of coal. These 

 are often in an extraordinary state of perfection, for the most delicate 



