OLD CASTLE MILL— THAT WAS. 



The Natural History of the Eastern Borders would be incomplete, 

 without some account of the Flora which grew in the district at 

 periods long anterior to the present, and which is now to be found 

 only in a fossil state. Poetry has not yet lent to these Floral remains 

 the attractions of Song, nor are they associated in the popular mind 

 with legends and customs ; but their relation to Coal, a most valuable 

 mineral raised in the district, and the bearing which these relics of a 

 by-gone age have on important geological questions, invest them with 

 a degree both of popular and of scientific interest. Instead, therefore, 

 of merely presenting a bare enumeration of Fossil Plants with technical 

 descriptions, we shall endeavour to render the subject more interesting 

 and instructive by treating our Fossil Botany in connection vfith the 

 Natural History of Coal ; and in carrying out this design, local facts 

 will be used to illustrate scientific truths. 



This History will include an explanation of the relative position in 

 which Coal is found, proofs of its vegetable origin, a description of 

 the materials — the plants — whence it has been derived, an exposition 

 of the changes which it has undergone, and, in connection with these, 

 some general views of the Era during which it was deposited. 



The relative position of Coal. 



Geologists have distinctly proved, by observations made in all parts 

 of the world, that the stratified rocks, which form part of the crust 

 of the earth, have been gradually and successively deposited out of 

 water at different periods. These rocks are divided into Systems and 

 Formations, each marked by its own peculiar conditions, and distin- 

 guishable by its own characteristic organic remains or fossils. Imper- 

 fect coal is found in small quantities in most formations. Rarely, 

 however, has true coal been seen among the oldest rocks ; indeed, the 

 only instance we know of is that described by Mr. Sharpe, who has 

 proved that an anthracitic coal, 6 feet thick, in Portugal, belongs to 



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