148 



The occurrence of fires in the lignite beds is a phenomenon by no means peculiar to 

 them, since there is abundant evidence of other conflagrations as early as the Cretaceous, and 

 extending thence down to the present time, and well within the knowledge of those now 

 living. The origin of such fires has been traced to a well defined cause which throws a 

 great deal of light upon the combustion of the lignite beds, and may possibly serve as an' 

 adequate explanation. 



In 1905, Penhallow!^ gave a detailed account of a conflagration upon a beach at Kittery 

 point, Maine, which, according to the evidence, was due to the spontaneous combustion of 

 gases originating in the decomposition of organic debris, chiefly vegetable, buried in the 

 underlying sands. A further study of the circumstances surrounding the event, and of the 

 structure of the beach itself, confirmed the conclusions first reached, and permitted an expla- 

 nation of the probable origin of many obscure forest fires^. The facts thus set forth have also 

 led to a satisfactory explanation of forest fires which have left their records in formations as 

 remote as the Cretaceous. 



In 1905, Dr. Arthur Hollick directed attention to the presence of charred wood in the 

 Cretaceous deposits at Kreischerville, Staten island, New York, and drew the inference that 

 since man was not in existence at that time the fire must have been due to some natural 

 agency such as lightning^. This explanation, however, has not been regarded as satisfactory, 

 though it was adopted tentatively, because of the absence of positive testimony in any other 

 direction, and also because the occurrence of fires in widely separated localities of approxi- 

 mately the same geological age could not be accounted for through the medium of such an 

 agency. On a more recent occasion* he informs us that a careful study of the Kreischerville 

 deposits indicates very clearly that the original conditions of deposition must have been 

 strikingly similar to those described as existing at the Kittery Point beach, and he therefore 

 finds the explanation of the Kittery phenomenon to aiford a wholly satisfactory solution of 

 the way in which fires originated in Cretaceous time. 



Some years ago Dr. G. F. Matthew of St. John, Ifew Brunswick, described a forest 

 fire which had spread over the surface of a bog about 2,000 years ago^. A careful considera- 

 tion of all the circumstances set forth in that account renders it highly probable that that fire 

 also had its origin in the spontaneous combustion of gases generated in the bog itself, these 

 gases taking fire as soon as they reached the surface and came into contact with air. 



Dr. Dawson has assigned as one of the possible causes of fires in the lignite beds the 

 "spontaneous combustion of the lignite when undergoing decomposition at the outcrop^, but 

 as he overlooks the possible presence of combustible gases, and conceives such decomposition 

 to involve iron pyrites only, he rejects the explanation as highly improbable. 



Lignite beds are precisely such deposits as would be associated with the presence of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, the light carburetted hydrogen and phosphuretted hydrogen. How 

 long it would be possible for such gases to be stored in the strata where formed, or in those 

 adjacent thereto, is open to question, and does not materially affect the answer sought. But 



1 Science, N.S., XXII, 1905, 794-796. 



3 Pop. Sci. M., LXX, 1907, 557-564. 



3 Proo. Nat. Sci. Ass'n. S.I. IX, 1905, 35-36. 



■» Proc. S. I. Ass'n. Arts and Sciences, I, 1906, 21. 



6 Can. Rec. Sci., VIII, 1900, 213-218. 



6 Brit. N. A. Bound. Comm., 1875, 168. 



