On the Mosaic account of the Creation. 381 



depression of the primitive formation s," by which the sepa- 

 ration of land and sea was effected, or that revolution could 

 not have deposited it. 



This, however, not only finds a decided contradiction in the 

 Mosaic record, but had it been as Mr. Penn states, we should 

 naturally seek the coal, not as he would have us believe, 

 amidst the iC earliest intermediate formations," but actually 

 in the primary rocks themselves ; for it must be borne in 

 mind, that at the time alluded to, no other rocks were in 

 existence, and the disruption which caused the separation of 

 land and sea, would therefore have buried the vegetation, 

 had any such existed, beneath the debris of primary rocks 

 alone ; so that they would have been enclosed between the basal 

 primary rocks, and an overlying primary conglomerate, a 

 circumstance which we know full well is not the case, — the 

 coal lying invariably amidst strata that have been deposited 

 from the bosom of deep and tranquil waters ; and widely 

 separated from the true primary rocks by the whole of the 

 old red sandstone and silurian systems. 



But we shall presently perceive the reasons why Mr. Penn 

 is so anxious to establish a marine origin for the substance of 

 coal, an origin however which is now satisfactorily disproved, 

 for the phenomena of the enclosing strata have thorough- 

 ly established the fact that the coal has been produced, not 

 from marine, but from terrestrial vegetation of a tropical 

 and fern-like character. 



It therefore follows that the causes which tended to accu- 

 mulate and mineralise this vegetable substance, must have 

 been in operation subsequent not only to the separation of 

 land and sea, and to the existence of dry land, but like- 

 wise to the furnishing of that dry land with a varied and 

 luxuriant vegetation. 



Thus we perceive that every fact is opposed to the theory of 

 the Mosaic geologist, and consequently that his arguments to 

 establish the third creative day, as the first geological revo- 

 lution are at once completely overthrown and refuted. 



3 D 



