gg4, COAL AND LIGNITE 



coal, it may be remarked, that a very material difference exists, -which may be 

 considered as favorable to the latter being admitted as a member of the coal 

 series. The Sildm coal, although equally brittle at parts, comes out in masses, 

 giving a large conchoidal fracture, is accompanied by Pyrites, as well as na- 

 tive sulphur, the result of its decomposition, circumstances not met with irt 

 the present deposits. The former may be accounted for, by the Kalawala not 

 having arrived at that state of bituminization, which characterises that at Sikmi ; 

 but the latter, if it proves to be the case, that sulphur is totally absent at Ka- 

 lawala, is an indication upon which we may form a very warrantable decision 

 on its approximation and dependence on the Lignite family. The only doubt 

 therefore that arises is, in the classification of the Sildni mineral : that at the 

 Kalawala Pass bears so decidedly the character of a submerged deposit of ve- 

 getable remains, bounded by the limits of its own peculiar stratum, that it 

 may be placed with those carboniferous substances so frequently met with 

 in diluvial beds, and the secondary sand-stones. From a point above the yellow 

 stratum, in which a mixture of conglomerate had taken place, I extracted a 

 specimen of a branch of a tree, the charring of which was so trivial, as to 

 give it the appearance of a petrefaction : the diameter of the branch was 

 about an inch j but the discovery of this alone, even had there been doubts 

 before of the family to which it was allied, would, I conceive, have removed 

 all difficulties on the subject. Throughout the whole, however, it may be 

 observed, that the outer coating of the wood appears to have been the 

 only part that has Undergone the chemical change, the interior being in 

 almost every instance replaced by the sand-stone or the rock in which it is 

 imbedded. 



The Second deposit at the Kalawala Pass, corresponds so closely with the 

 description already given of the preceding, that it would merely be a repeti- 

 tion were I to enter into the details. The sand-stone, however, in which it is 

 imbedded is of a bright yellow color arising from the same source, as the 



