1913-] STEVENSON— FORMATION OF COAL BEDS. 143 



Hutton and Fischer and Rust observed that resinous bodies, cell- 

 Hke in character, are abundant in cannels and similar materials ; von 

 Giimbel in 1883 found in cannel a wonderful mass of disks and 

 spores with flocky clay, macerated cells and alg?e-like plants. Cannel 

 and boghead are surprisingly like the Lebertorf of Purpesseln in 

 East Prussia, which is a collection of parts of plants in a felt-like 

 mass containing insects, leaves, separated cells and pollen grains, 

 there being 1,000 of the last to each cubic centimeter. He felt com- 

 pelled to believe that cannel, boghead and the Lebertorfs of Purpes- 

 seln and of the kurischen Haffs originated in similar manner; and 

 he regarded them as closely related to the Plattekohle of Bohemia 

 as well as to the Tula gas coal of Russia. He observed the algge-like 

 bodies in the Tasmanite of Van Diemans land. Frlih's studies on 

 peat appeared in 1883. He described the Lebertorf as a liver-brown 

 gelatinous mass, consisting very largely of algae, there being more 

 than 60 species at one locality ; he discovered that the algse are of 

 comparatively rare occurrence in true peat. Penhallow in 1892 

 found great numbers of amber-colored rod-shaped bodies in the 

 felted mass of a Mesozoic cannel. 



The results of studies by Bertrand and Renault"^ have been 

 given in considerable detail on earlier pages. They examined the 

 boghead of Autun in France and the Kerosene shale of New South 

 Wales. Both contain the flocculent material observed by von Giimbel 

 and Penhallow, in which are the algas-like forms with pollen grains 

 and vegetable debris. This, they regard as an ulmic jelly precipitated 

 from the brown waters on which the fleurs d'eau floated. An infil- 

 trated substance was observed at both localities, penetrating thalli 

 of the algse and, in the Kerosene shale, showing a fluidal structure. 

 Some plants and parts of plants absorb it energetically and it pene- 

 trates the brown flocculent material or fundamental jelly. Ber- 

 trand's later studies were summed up in 1900, when he stated that 

 these " charbons gelosiques " are accumulations of fresh-water algae 

 in a huniic jelley, their fossilization being in the presence of ''bitu- 

 men." Spores and pollen became fossilized but did not liquefy. 



"""Formation of Coal Beds," L, these Proceedings, Vol. L., igii, pp. 

 8S-93. 



