THE TORBANE HlLL MINERAL. 



373 



is the substance of the Caithness fish in the Caithness flags, as black 

 and shining it lies on the surface of the split stone, is bitumen. But 

 may not these fossils be bituminous casts of the moulds left in the 

 flagstones by the fossil fish after their decomposition ? In limestones 

 is not the substance of the fossil fish carbonate of lime ; in sand- 

 stone is it not silex — flint. And were flint and carbonate of lime 

 the constituents of the bones of those fish when they lived and swam 

 in the ancient seas ? 



Were the bones of the lining fish of the Caithness-flag period 

 formed of bitumen ? If so, what a singular fact is revealed to us — 

 " that in the ancient geological periods the fish formed their osseous 

 skeletons, and the scales of their bodies sometimes of bitumen, some- 

 times of carbonate of lime, sometimes of flint, and perhaps occa- 

 sionally of other mineral substances, as they appear to have used any 

 material which came to hand with utter indifference, while modern 

 fish, on the contrary, have become excessively fastidious, and make 

 their bones only of phosphate of lime." 



The Torbane Hill mineral is certainly not Caithness flagstone, and 

 if it be a shale it is certainly not coal. Neither is it " Cannel-coal ;" 

 and, if it were, we might question that term. Is Cannel " coal" 

 coal ? 



" Cannel-coal" means candle-coal, and was so called because the 

 miners cut the substance into strips, and used them as candles in 

 their works. It is, however, very different in structure, appearance 

 and fracture from common coal, and from which it is also distin- 

 guished by the products of its distillation. 



There are large cannel oiZ-works at Kannaha, in Virginia. There are 

 cannel oil- works in England, in France and many other places. But 

 this use which " cannel" coal is put to is very different from any of 

 the general uses of coal. It is more in accordance with the use of 

 bituminous shales, petroleums, Rangoon tar, and other substances 

 which nobody dreams of calling coal. 



But to return to the Torbane Hill mineral. It does not look like 

 coal ; does not burn like coal ; is not bedded in the earth like coal ; 

 never was made like coal. And, assuredly, it is not coal. 



If we wanted further aid than Geology to show the distinction 

 between them we could call in the chemist, who would tell us that 



