388 Mr, Hatchett's Observations on the Change 
on the varieties of turf, bituminous wood, and pit coal, on the 
nature of their surrounding strata, on the vestiges of animal 
and vegetable bodies which accompany them, and on various 
other local facts ; all of which tend considerably to elucidate the 
history of their formation, and to throw light upon this interest- 
ing part of geology. 
Some instances have already been mentioned, which show 
that fossil animal substances form a series, commencing with 
such as are scarcely different from those which are recent, and 
germinating in productions which have totally lost all traces of 
organization. 
Similar instances are afforded by the vegetable kingdom ; but, 
without entering into a minute detail of every gradation, I shall 
only cite three examples in this island, namely, 
1 . The submarine forest at Sutton, on the coast of Lincoln- 
shire, the timber of which has not suffered any very apparent 
change in its vegetable characters.* 
2. The strata of bituminous wood (called Bovey Coal) found 
at Bovey, in Devon ; which exhibits a series of gradations, from 
the most perfect ligneous texture, to a substance nearly ap- 
proaching the characters of pit coal, and, on that account, dis- 
tinguished by the name of Stone Coal. 
3. And lastly, the varieties of pit coal, so abundant in many 
parts of this country, in which almost every appearance of 
vegetable origin has been destroyed. 
The three examples abovementioned, appear to form the 
extremities and centre of the series; but as, from some local 
* Account of a submarine Forest on the East Coast of England, by Dr. Correa 
de Serra, Phil. Trans, for 1799, p. 145. 
