49 



TAB. CCCXXIX. 



C A R B O bituminosus. 

 Staffordshire Coal. 



In Coals we see an astonishing contrivance, not only to 1 

 preserve ancient and vast woods and forests to provide for 

 future contingencies, but, as it were, to the very produce 

 of each successive term of the former vegetable surface ; 

 thus acres are piled upon acres and laid up in the grand 

 storehouse of Nature, that nothing may be lost to all-fa- 

 voured Mankind ! 



The present Coal is perhaps little else than the remains 

 of wood, and is comparatively but little altered in its con- 

 struction from situation. The more charcoal-like parts are 

 rather less distinct than in the Newcastle Coal, and the 

 bituminous part mixed more confusedly with it, and it 

 upon the whole contains less foreign ingredients, as every 

 one may experience in the burning it. If slowly burned it 

 will produce ashes which exactly resemble burnt wood, 

 with very little chemical difference. The figure represents 

 the progress from the Coal at the bottom through the 

 cinder to the while ash. The watery parts go off in steam, 

 and the most volatile, the hydrogen and oleaceous parts 

 succeed; then follow the more bituminous, leaving either 

 carbon or ash, according to the degree of heat and time of 

 exposure ; or if burned very briskly and in a strong heat, 

 it might become a clinker. Thus I conceive that we have 

 a sort of analysis. 



That Coals differ much under certain circumstances 

 there is little doubt 3 this kind is apparently nearest re- 



VOL, IV. F 



