674 



ON THE FOKMATION OP COAL-SEAMS. 



associated with Stigmaria between two coal-seams # . And thus it 

 would appear that the underclays were probably not the old land- 

 surfaces which supported the coal-forests, but were true aqueous 

 deposits. 



/. Actually imbedded in coal itself have been found numerous 

 quartzite boulders very similar to those found in the underclays, and 

 these have turned up in many parts of England as well as on the 

 continent. Other foreign bodies in coal-seams consist of the remains 

 of aquatic mollusca, fish, &c. t. 



g. That marine conditions prevailed, if not during the accumulation 

 of many of our coal-beds, certainly immediately afterwards, is clear 

 from the abundance in the roof-shales of the seams of fossils 

 which must have had a salt-water habitat, and also from the fact 

 that brine is so frequently met with in the pores of the coal itself J. 



In conclusion, then, my contention is, that, notwithstanding all that 

 has been written on the coal-question, up to the present time no 

 facts have been brought forward which can in any way show that 

 the plants forming coal-seams actually grew in situ, but that what 

 evidence we do possess decidedly favours a drift- or, at all events, 

 an aqueous origin. 



* At Coleorton Colliery, near Ashby de la Zouch, the author found this shell 

 between the "Lount Middle" and the "Lount Nether" coal-seams. 



t From the " Main," the " Cannel," and other seams of the Leicestershire 

 coal-field. 



% The "Main" coal-seam of Moira, in the Leicestershire coal-field. 



