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be explained in a lecture. And this was not from any 

 fault of the teacher ; but from the manner in which he must 

 pursue it, it is impossible to give correct general terms 

 applicable to the knowledge of the subject. Words which 

 were generally well understood were used in a technical 

 sense by geologists ; and among these he would instance 

 that even the word rock," the meaning of which every 

 one was familiar with, was by geologists used in a tech- 

 nical sense. 



Having thus premised the observations he had to make, 

 Professor Phillips went on to observe, that plants and 

 animals were imbedded in the earth, and underwent in 

 the course of ages a variety of changes, either mechanical 

 or chemical. All analogous strata were of equal antiquity ; 

 and some recent formations contained transformations as per- 

 fect as those which were formed from the ancient deposits. 

 He was prepared to believe that all classes of coal were 

 derived from plants ; and he would call the attention of 

 the meeting to some facts in proof of his assertion on that 

 subject. One of these. That he had cut and polished a 

 great number of pieces of jet, which he had found on the 

 Yorkshire coast ; and he had found in all of them the 

 texture of the wood as clear and as distinct as if it 

 had been cut fresh from the tree. In addition to this, 

 he alluded to some illustrations of the subject which 

 had come under his observation, in respect of a cutting 

 which had been recently made by the Aire and Calder 

 Company, in the neighbourhood of Ferrybridge, where 

 they had discovered what was, in fact, a subterranean 

 forest. The soil was alluvial, and in one part of the 

 cutting it went over this subterranean forest, which was 

 composed of hazel bushes, containing fine clusters of nuts, 

 which were imbedded at a depth of about fourteen feet. 

 Some of the wood was unchanged, but in some instances 

 both the wood and nuts were changed. There was no 



