PALEOZOIC TIME CARBONIC. 



655 



cite has been found to contain vegetable tissues. On examining a piece 

 partly burnt, J. W. Bailey found that it was made up of carbonized 

 vegetable fibers. Figs. 1029, a, b are from his paper on this subject. He 

 selected specimens which were imperfectly burnt (like Fig. 1029), and ex- 

 amined the surface just on the borders of the black portion. Fig. 1029 a 

 represents a number of ducts, thus brought to light, as they appeared when 

 moderately magnified ; and Fig 1029 b, two of the ducts, more enlarged ; the 



1029 b. 



1029. 



1030. 



10 



29 



a. 



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Figs. 1029, a, b, Vegetable tissues In anthracite ; 1030, Spores and part of a Sporangium, in bituminous coal of 



Ohio (X 70). Figs. 1029, Bailey; 1030, Dawson. 



black lines being the coal that remained after the partial burning, and the 

 light spaces silica. The ducts were one tenth of a millimeter (about four 

 thousandths of an inch) broad. Dawson reports like results from bituminous 

 coal. 



The spores and sporangites, or spore-cases, of the Lycopods (Lepidoden- 

 drids) and other Acrogens, abound in the coal to such an extent in some 

 places, that it has been suggested that mineral coal was made mainly out of 

 them. While, as Dawson has shown, this inference is not sustained by facts, 

 such spore-cases are very common in most coal. Fig. 1030 represents, much 

 magnified, the surface of a piece of Ohio bituminous coal, showing a fragment 

 of a spore-case and many of the spores. The spore-cases vary in size, from 

 a tenth to a hundredth of an inch, and in the coal they often have an amber- 

 yellow color. Dr. Dawson states that he has a specimen of Pennsylvania 

 anthracite full of spore-cases, but that the Pictou coal is remarkably free 

 from them. 



Animal materials have also contributed to the coal, though sparingly. 

 For animal decomposition also yields carbonaceous material ; and animal life 

 was so abundant in the waters that the contributions in some places may 

 have been important. The great number of fossil fishes in some very 

 carbonaceous or bituminous shales has led to the suggestion that fish-oil may 

 have been the sole source of the oil or gas yielded by the shales. It is not 



