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the fibres and tissues. In the fermentation or chemical 
change that takes place in the process of crystallization, it is 
pretty evident electricity or magnetism has formed the 
cleavage in coal, as it runs very exact to 15 degrees west of 
the present magnetic pole; but the magnetic pole varies, 
and all the coal series are the same where this particular 
cleavage is distinct. It is well known, from a variety of 
experiments, that some plants decompose sooner in water 
than others ; and hard- wood trees sooner than firs, ferns, &c. 
The partially decomposed fibre of the hard- wood trees would, 
in some cases, be floated ; in others left in the stagnant waters. 
These stagnant ponds would be very similar to those described 
by Hawkshaw, in his Reminiscences of South America, 
" where, in the commencement of a fresh, the turbid waters 
" were poured out as black as ink." In the regular mass of 
cannel coal, the crystalline structure so conspicuous in 
cokeing coal is wholly wanting, according to Lindley and 
Hutton, as quoted by Dr. Buckland. But this is not quite 
correct, as the crystalline structure is present, but changed 
into crystals of a larger size, which gives the idea that the 
vegetables have not been deposited in a mass but partially 
decomposed. I am of opinion that stone or cannel coal has 
been formed by a quantity of water charged with decaying 
vegetable matter, submerging a district in which partially 
decomposed and growing vegetables were present, and con- 
taining a sufficient amount of acid to cause active fermenta- 
tion, similar to the swamps described by Hawkshaw, for the 
wavy or undulated appearance of the coal indicates such a 
kind of action to have been in operation. I have seen a 
somewhat similar process going on in a partially stagnant 
pond, where a sufficient amount of vegetable decomposition 
had taken place for the liberation of gases that would 
support flame on the surface ; when this pond had been dried 
up I have seen, by cutting a section of the black sediment at 
