76 RAMBLING THOUGHTS IN A HANLEY MARL PIT. 



a series of deposits of coal have taken place without any 

 intervening clays or sands. As the beds vary in every 

 district, so are they known by local names. 



I must, however, detain you a few minutes longer, 

 while I say something as to the mode in which these 

 coal-beds have been brought into their present position, a 

 part of the subject that to persons who have not made 

 the history of our earth a study is, I believe, difficult to 

 realise. Some of you may say, " I can understand how 

 coal was formed at the bottom of inland lakes, or bays 

 in the sea, and covered over by mud and sand ; but how 

 has it got here, far away from the sea, and on high 

 ground ? I should have rather looked for it low down in 

 the valley, at Trentham, than in an elevated position." 



My dear sir, or madam, it is true you and I now stand 

 high in the world, nearly ~ half-way to Hanley, and can 

 look down on Stoke and Joiner's-square. That is very 

 satisfactory, no doubt ; but it was not always thus. In 

 order to comprehend these great changes, you must get 

 rid of all these notions of irregularities. Those pretty 

 valleys of the Trent and its tributaries were unknown to 

 the old fish who, Mr. Ward tells us, lived in those olden 

 times. These valleys are but the scoopings of yesterday, 

 as compared with the remote antiquity of the mudstone 

 on which we stand and the coal under our feet. You 

 must endeavour to realize the whole of the present val- 

 leys filled with this mudstone, or clay, or marl, or what- 

 ever you like to call it, across to the top of Wettey Moor, 

 far and far away to the east ; and to Silverdale, far, far 

 away to the west and high above the tops of those beautiful 

 chimney-stacks which adorn the landscape, and the whole 

 of the district, down, far down, thrown, it may be, be- 



