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tion here offered will be found in perfect coincidence with that 

 given by Mr. Hatchett, Mr. Williams, and Mons. Tingry, as far as 

 regards the derivation of coal from vegetable matter ; differing only 

 from that of the two former gentlemen, in its attempt to ascertain 

 the nature of the process by which the, change has been effected ; 

 and from that of the latter gentleman, in not acknowledging the 

 necessity of the general operation of mineral vapours or subterra- 

 nean fires and distillation. 



The opinion, which the strictest examination of every circum- 

 stance seems best to warrant the adoption of, appears to be, that 

 coal is a product of the vegetable matter, which has been buried 

 at several distant periods, but chiefly in consequence of an uni- 

 versal deluge ; and which, after having been reduced to a fluid state 

 by the bituminous fermentation, has suffered a certain modification 

 of that inflammability, which bitumens in general possess, by the 

 deposition of its carbon, and by an intimate and peculiar intermix- 

 ture with various earthy and metallic salts. 



In examining the solidity of this hypothesis, the attention must 

 become particularly engaged by three different circumstances, 

 which offer themselves as necessary objects of inquiry. In the first 

 place, the necessity presents itself, of ascertaining, whether the de- 

 luge may have been capable of occasioning that deposition of the 

 matter of which coal is formed. In the next place, it should be 

 determined, whether the circumstances under which this matter has 

 been deposited, were likely to occasion it to undergo such chemical 

 changes as would produce its transmutation into coal. Lastly, it 

 is requisite to discover, how far this suppositious change accords 

 with the general ceconomy of nature ; or, at least, with that part of 

 it which it has been permitted to us to understand. 



The general tenour of the Mosaic account of the creation of the 

 world, as well as several distinct expressions employed by the 

 sacred historian, whilst speaking more particularly of the creation 



