177 



for a considerable time in the bowels of the fish, but this could 

 scarcely be a general case. I know it has been argued that 

 the softer parts of fishes have been devoured by entomostraca, 

 so abundant in some beds of the Coal Series, and thus the 

 harder parts have been loosened, and carried away and dis- 

 persed by currents of water; but I have not been able to 

 detect any such remains in the Stanley bed. 



But if these beds be indeed coal, and if they have been 

 formed in the manner now represented, there arise the follow- 

 ing interesting inquiries : — Whence had the carbonaceous and 

 bituminous matter, of which they are chiefly composed, their 

 origin ? Did they consist of decomposed vegetable matter, 

 which had been floating in the water and gradually subsided 

 to the bottom ? And are we to consider all coal as formed in 

 the same way ? 



It has been said that the vegetable structure has been 

 observed in Coal itself ; and nothing is more common than to 

 find, in the Haigh Moor Coal, very perfect flutings and leaf- 

 scars of sigillaria; but where these occur, the coal is of an 

 inferior quality ; and where the undecomposed flattened stems 

 of sigillaria are very abundant, the substance formed is deno- 

 minated ''dirt," and is excluded from good saleable coal. 

 With respect to the two beds of coal, upon which these 

 remarks have been made, I think we may arrive at a negative 

 conclusion, — viz. That the two beds of coal in question have 

 not been formed of wood or vegetables piled upon each other, 

 but by the gradual deposition of bituminous, carbonaceous, 

 and earthy substances. 



" There is no geological formation of so much economical 

 importance, none requiring more minute investigation, and we 

 may add, none more difficult of access to the ordinary observer, 

 than the Coal formation. It is to gentlemen particularly en- 

 gaged in mining operations, that we must look for information 

 on matters connected with the important Coal-field of York- 

 shire. 



