[22 Reviews— Quarterly Journal of Science. 
This latter diminution from West to East may afford grounds for 
belief that the Coal does not extend under the Cretaceous districts. 
The author presupposes the marine origin of Coal, in which 
Messrs. Binney and Salter will cordially agree; but Botanists 
remind us that, at the present day, with the exception of the ‘ Sea- 
wrack’ (Zostera marina) of our coasts, there are no truly marine 
plants having a vascular structure, or capable of a momentary com- 
parison with the highly developed vegetation of the Coal-period. 
That trees of such gigantic growth as Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, 
and the Conifere grew in the sea, surpasses belief. We much prefer 
to accept Sir C. Lyell’s comparison of the Coal-vegetation with 
those luxuriantly rank Mangrove- and Cypress-swamps, the long- 
accumulated growths of tropical vegetation, which are to be seen in 
such valleys as those of the Mississippi and the Amazon, and along 
the coasts of the West Indian Islands, where warmth and moisture 
accelerate both growth and decay, and which present, when cut 
through, forest-bed beneath forest-bed, each divided by its layer of 
clay containing the roots of the tall cypress, just as the Under-clays 
of the Coal are filled with the Stegmaria. 
Mr. Hull not only assumes all the Coal-fields north and south of 
his Barrier-land to have been originally but two continuous areas of 
deposit, since broken up and reduced to their present limits, but he 
infers that the whole of the Coal-measures of the North-west of 
England were formerly covered by a superincumbent mass of 
Jurassic, Triassic, and Permian strata, to a thickness of 7,000 feet, 
which has all been swept away to form newer strata, leaving the 
denuded surface of the Carboniferous series exposed for the industry 
of man to develope its vast mineral wealth. 
Four years ago, Professor Draper tells us, Petroleum may be said 
to have been generally unknown in America; now it is one of the 
most important articles of home consumption and foreign exporta- 
tion. Its value in America has been set down at £15,000,000 ster- 
ling per annum! John Steele, of Oil-creek Valley, is said to derive 
an income of £150,000 per annum from mines on his property. 
Two hundred and fifty companies have been formed for working the 
borings, and represent a capital of £30,000,000! All this activity 
in collecting a mineral product, found in almost every quarter of the 
globe, and known and used by both Greeks and Romans, and by the 
Persians and other oriental nations, has arisen from the introduction 
of Coal-oil-distillation by Mr. James Young, of Glasgow, and the 
methods he invented for refining the crude oil, so as to render it 
sufficiently pure to be used for all demestic purposes of artificial 
illumination. The discovery of such vast natural supplies of minerai 
oil in the pre-carboniferous strata of America has, of course, super- 
seded the process of distillation of Boghead coal. Nature can distil 
more cheaply than man. 
Dr. Ancus Smita describes the various ways of ingress and egress 
for metallic mines, and devotes considerable space (and a plate) to a 
description of the ‘Man-engine,’ which he shows to be superior to 
the use of ladders, the climbing being productive of pulmonary 
