30 fftature'0 /BMracles. 



It will be seen from what has gone before 

 that coal was first wood. But wood is a 

 product of sunshine. Thus the sun was the 

 architect and builder of the trees and plants 

 that were finally hermetically sealed under the 

 great earth strata. The sun gathered up the 

 material and set the forces in play which made 

 the chemical combinations of the various ele- 

 ments in nature that enter into vegetable 

 growth. 



After the lapse of untold ages of time these 

 great beds of stored-up sun-energy were dis- 

 covered by man and their contents are dragged 

 out to the earth's surface, to warm our houses, 

 to drive the machinery of our factories, to 

 send the locomotives flying across the conti- 

 nents and the steamships over the oceans. So 

 important has this article become that if any 

 one nation could control the output it would 

 be able to paralyze all the navies and the 

 manufacturing of the world. 



If the coal of the world should become ex- 

 hausted we should be confronted with a great 

 problem. Fortunately for us, this is a prob- 

 lem that will have to be solved by the people 

 of some future age, as the growth of wood will 

 scarcely keep pace with the consumption of 

 fuel. By that time the genius of man will 

 have devised an economical means of storing 

 the energy of the sunbeams directly for pur- 

 poses of heat, light, and power. 



