260 PRE CIO US STONES. 



size. Near Kanawha, Va., and at many other places too numerous to men- 

 tion, this same gas has been known to escape for years without cessation. 

 It is this gas which constitutes the dreaded " fire damp " of our coal mines, 

 the cavTse of all the terrible disasters and explosions with which the history 

 of coal mining is filled. Points from which it escapes in much the same 

 manner as at lola, without the efflux of water, are known to the miners as 

 "blowers," and are liable to suddenly appear at any time upon opening a 

 new seam. 



Nor, upon the other hand, is it at all necessary, in endeavoring to 

 explain the origin of such large quantities of this gas as escaj^e from the 

 lola boring, to resort to the popular but very improbable hypothesis of 

 the decomposition of the coal itself by the agency of heat; especially inap- 

 plicable to this uniformly undisturbed portion of the Lower Coal Measure 

 of Kansas. There is no evidence to show that this vacant seam of 20 

 inches encountered at this great depth was originally occupied by a coal 

 bed at all, and such a supposition is not in any way essential. There can be 

 no doubt but that this opening, whether produced by flexure of lower strata 

 or otherwise, communicates laterally with a very large tract of coal bearing 

 formations, possibly with a good portion of the "Western Interior Coal 

 Area. And when we remember the fact that this Light Carburetted Hy- 

 drogen is given off in large quantities from many varieties of bituminous 

 coal at ordinary temperatures, we need be at no loss to account for its appear- 

 ance at this opening in such considerable amount. It is from this cause 

 that the gas accumulates in coal mines in such dangerous quantities ; and it 

 is by no means impossible that this lola boring may serve as the " vent 

 hole" for a considerable area of coal bearing territory. This escape of 

 Light Carburetted Hydrogen from soft bituminous coal at ordinary tem- 

 peratures is of course a continuation of the original coal forming process : 

 a slow decomposition of vegetable matter under a very limited supply of 

 atmospheric oxygen, in which the gaseous products are principally Light 

 Carburetted Hydrogen with Carbonic Acid (di-oxide), small portions of 

 Carbonic Oxide and occasionally still smaller quantities of free Hydrogen. 

 The appearance of the Light Carburetted Hydrogen in so liberal quantities 

 at the lola Avell, as also the composition of the water brought uj) by the 

 pulsations of the gas itself, are both matters of very great scientific interest; 

 but neither their interest nor their importance are in any way augmented 

 by ascribing miraculous properties to the one or an anomalous origin to 

 the other. 



PRECIOUS STONES. 



The same love of brilliancy which in childhood is manifested by a de- 

 sire to grasp the flame of a candle or any other shining object, in more 

 mature age is indicated b}^ a love for gems. Although, at j)resent, the value 

 of gems depends solely on their use as ornaments and on their usefulness 



