62 FOSSIL HYDKO-CARBONS, 



I am not aware what effect would be produced by the dry distillation of 

 the elastic gums of commerce, india-rubber, &c. ; but my impression is 

 that sundry oils approximating more or less to those obtained from coals 

 and bitumens would be the result, and possibly other hydro-carbons of 

 equal utility to benzole, &c. : and if this surmise should prove correct, 

 another link connecting the hydro-carbons of the past with those of the 

 present would be established. 



In how many ways, and for how long a period, have the recent hydro- 

 carbons administered to the comforts and necessities of our race ! " Wine 

 that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil that gives to him a cheerful 

 countenance," are compounded chiefly of these valuable ingredients ; whilst 

 the great bulk of our food, which is farinaceous, consists also primarily of 

 the same elements. Odours the most enchanting, and flavours the most 

 agreeable, owe their excellence to a combination of hydrogen and carbon, 

 and it would require many pages to recount the numberless pleasures 

 afforded to man's various senses hy these products of recent vegetation ; but 

 I forbear, and return to my immediate subject, the fossil store, upon which 

 man has not drawn largely until these latter times, although they now bid 

 fair to rival the recent hydro-carbons in a variety of ways. 



The ancients found an extensive use for the slime and bitumen which 

 abound in Asia Minor and other distant countries. The very mortar that 

 fixed the bricks in Babel's lordly tower consisted of this mineral pitch ; and 

 other minor applications of the rock-oils and solid bitumens were doubtless 

 in vogue, although we have no historical account of such small matters. 



Not many centuries have elapsed, however, since man first turned the 

 fossil hydro-carbons to real practical account ; whilst now, in addition to a 

 vast variety of secondary blessings extracted from them, they supply us 

 largely with heat, light, and colour — the latter a recent discovery of im- 

 mense value, rendering the triple cord complete. 



How beneficent a design the discovery of these invaluable deposits 

 really develops, and how deep is the obligation of Britain to a Paternal 

 Creator for such inexhaustible supplies of wealth and prosperity ! 

 England without her coal-mines would necessarily be limited both in 

 population and power ; and the continued and increasing well-being of 

 this country is clue, under the providence of God, to that fossil vegetation 

 which appears to have been purposely stored to meet the exigencies of our 

 island-home. 



Light, heat, and colour, intimately associated as they are, and indis- 

 solubly bound together, we now extract from the unprepossessing and 

 darkened vegetable remains of bygone worlds ; and what interesting 

 matter for reflection this curious fact really unfolds ! Sir Isaac Newton's 

 theory of colour involuntarily recurs to us. That great sage denied the 

 existence of colour, except as a component part of pure light, and 

 regarded the paints or pigments, which we commonly denominate colours, 

 as simply substances possessed of certain modifications of form capable of 

 separating particular colours, or shades of colour, from the rays of light. 

 Assuming this theory to be correct, it is strange that of all the substances 



