- ?42 — 



which it is the first place, it passes into a brown colour and is alinost 

 black in tint. But besides the eelluse and chlorophyl ther is present a 

 certain amount of earthy matter which has been called silicous that is 

 to say silica , but it is clayey , the alurainium silicate of the chemist, 

 and is called and known as day. This earthy matter is heavier thnn 

 the cellulose and thei'efore settles at the bottoni of the pasty mass. 

 And as the peatty matter is thick mid aimost dry it does not entirely 

 settle. So what results is the peat underlaid by day and resting in 

 whateven soil or rock is common in the rountry where the peat occurs. 

 And where this day is exarained by means of the microscope it is found 

 to be mainly made up of the remains of Bacillaria, the Diatomacciie or 

 Diatoms of the infusorial hunter or infusoria in short. The infusorial 

 earths of the older microscopist. The shells of Bacillaria are those which 

 are common in fresh water whei'e grossing in streams, lakes or large 

 masses of water ali over the land, brackish water when graving along 

 shore where the fresh water is contaminated with the salt water of the 

 ocean , or marine or salt water where growing in the open water of 

 the ocean. The peat becomes hardened by contractioii and thus passes 

 through the stages of brown coal and so on to anthracite. There last 

 stages being rich in carbon with very smali quanlity hydrogen and no 

 oxygen. This finaley passes into a mass of pure carbon, in short pluni- 

 bago, the ordinavy' black lead as it is called. But the wood that occurs 

 in the coal in the shape of trees or their branches and often is upright 

 in position as the trees ordina rily grew, is not coal truly itself, but is 

 found scarcely, and at the bottom on the day, where it grew before the 

 peat is formed. So that there results a layer of day having bogs of 

 wood, or standing stamps of trees, sometimes fifteen feet long, on the 

 top of which is coal or peat. This is the manner in which coal is formed. 



Then whene does the petroleum, or rock oil as it is called, corno 

 from ? It is a fluid, or semi fluid, with no fossils in it to use as argu- 

 ments to judge from. The origin of petroleum has occupied the minds 

 of various observers and the results are set down in various publica- 

 tions. 



Let as see what are the views of the leading geologists on the su- 

 bject. Le Conte on the Pacific coast and Newberry who is familiar with 

 the oils of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The last of whom I bave conversed 

 with on the subject. 



First Le Conte says that the amount of oil Tearing sfrata in the 

 United Staste is practically inexhaustible. 



