[February, 
84 The Formation of Coal. 
form an almost purely vegetable deposit, mingled only with 
the very small portion of mineral matter that is held in sus- 
pension in the apparently clearwater. This mineral matter 
must be distributed among the vegetable matter in the form 
of impalpable particles having a chemical composition simi- 
lar to that of the rocks around. Near the shores, a com- 
pound deposit must be formed consisting of trees and 
fragments of leaves, twigs, and other vegetable matter mixed 
with larger proportions of the mineral debris. 
If we look a little further at what is taking place in the 
fjords of Norway we shall see how this vegetable deposit 
will ultimately become succeeded by an overlying mineral 
deposit which must ultimately constitute a stratified rock. 
All these fjords branch up into inland valleys down which 
pours a brawling torrent or a river of some magnitude. 
These are more or less turbid with glacier mud or other 
detritus, and great deposits of this material have already 
accumulated in such quantity as to constitute characteristic 
modern geological formations bearing the specific Norsk 
name of dren, as Laerdalsdren, Sundalsdren , &c., describing 
the small delta plains at the mouth of a river where it enters 
the termination of the fjord, and which from their excep- 
tional fertility constitute small agricultural settlements 
bearing these names, which signify the river sands of Laerdal , 
Sundal, &c. These deposits stretch out into the fjord, 
forming extensive shallows that are steadily growing and 
advancing further into the fjord. One of the most remark- 
able examples of such deposits is that brought by the 
Storelv (or Justedals Elv), which flows down the Justedal, 
receiving the outpour from its glaciers, and terminating at 
Marifjoren. When bathing here I found an extensive sub- 
aqueous plain stretching fairly across that branch of the 
Lyster fjord into which the Storelv flows. The waters of 
the fjord are whitened to a distance of two or three miles 
beyond the mouth of the river. These deposits must, if the 
present conditions last long enough, finally extend to the 
body, and even to the mouth of the fjords, and thus cover 
the whole of the bottom vegetable bed with a stratified rock 
in which will be entombed, and there be well preserved, speci- 
mens of the trees and other vegetable forms corresponding 
to those below, which have been lying so long in the clear 
waters that they have become soddened into homogeneous 
vegetable pulp or mud, only requiring the pressure of solid 
superstratum to convert them into coal. 
The specimens in the upper rock, I need scarcely add, 
would be derived from the same drifting as that which pro- 
