Curiosities of Science. 123 



neuil have been led to the same result by different argu- 

 ments.* 



WHAT WAS ADAMANT ? 



Professor Tennant replies, that the Adamant described by 

 Pliny was a sapphire, as proved by its form, and by the fact 

 that when struck on an anvil by a hammer it would make an 

 indentation in the metal. A true diamond, under such circum- 

 stances, would fly into a thousand pieces. 



WHAT IS COAL ? 



The whole evidence we possess as to the nature of Coal 

 proves it to have been originally a mass of vegetable matter. Its 

 microscopical characters point to its having been formed on the 

 spot in which we find it, to its being composed of vegetable 

 tissues of various kinds, separated and changed by maceration, 

 pressure, and chemical action, and to the introduction of its 

 earthy matter, in a large number of instances, in a state of so- 

 lution or fine molecular subdivision. Dr. Redfern, from whose 

 communication to the British Association we quote, knows 

 nothing to countenance the supposition that our coal-beds are 

 mainly formed of coniferous wood, because the structures found 

 in mother-coal, or the charcoal layer, have not the character of 

 the glandular tissue of such wood, as has been asserted. 



Geological research has shown that the immense forests 

 from which our coal is formed teemed with life. A frog as 

 large as an ox existed in the swamps, and the existence of in- 

 sects proves that the higher order of organic creation flourished 

 at this epoch. 



It has been calculated that the available coal-beds in Lanca- 

 shire amount in weight to the enormous sum of 8,400,000,000 

 tons. The total annual consumption of this coal, it has been 

 estimated, amounts to 3,400,120 tons; hence it is inferred that 

 the coal-beds of Lancashire, at the present rate of consumption, 

 will last 2470 years. Making similar calculations for the coal- 

 fields of South Wales, the north of England, and Scotland, it 

 will readily be perceived how ridiculous were the forebodings 

 which lecturing geologists delighted to indulge in a few years 

 ago. 



TOKBANE-HILL COAL. 



The coal of Torbane Hill, Scotland, is so highly inflammable, 

 that it has been disputed at law whether it be true coal, or 

 only asphaltum, or bitumen. Dr. Redfern describes it as laini- 



* Mr. Murray mentions, on the authority of the Rev. Dr. Robinson, of the 

 Observatory at Armagh, that a rough diamond with a red tint, and valued by 

 Mr. Rundell at twenty guineas, was found in Ireland, many years since, in the 

 bed of a brook flowing through the county of Fermanagh. 



