THE TOEBAXE HILL 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 living 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 indifierence, 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 oi7-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 bum 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 
