of Australian Coal. 201 
Peroxide of iron . 13*95 
Oxide of manganese. 3*25 
Alumine. 15*35 
Converted into gas, every pound yields 1 foot 345 
cubic inches of illuminating gas; every 100 parts of 
weight give 8 of tar, and 5 of pyroxylic spirit. 
Analysed with the peroxide of copper, the quantities 
of its ultimate elements, abstracted from earthy matter, 
will stand in the following proportion :— 
Carbon.50*48 
Hydrogen. 14*52 
Oxygen. 25*00 
Nitrogen . 10*00 
Geological situation .—The proximate constituents and 
their respective quantities found in this variety of coal 
are very unequally distributed throughout it, as different 
specimens yielding different analytical results obviously 
exemplify. This disparity can hardly be supposed to 
have originated at the formation of the, beds: it most 
likely arose from the situation the basalts subsequently 
assumed relatively to the outcroppings of coal .—(Vide 
ante , No. 1, p. 27, Dr. McCormick on the Geology of 
Kerguelen's Land.) 
The following tables show some striking differences in 
the proximate constituents between the specified varieties 
of coal. Whence does that difference arise ? How is it 
that seams belonging to the same section, divided by an 
undisturbed stratification of clays and sandstone of 5 or 
10 feet thickness, and geologically of contemporaneous 
formation, differ, however, so widely in their chemical 
character that—as, for instance, at Jerusalem—the upper 
is a pure bituminous coal, while in the underlying 
stratum the bitumen is sparingly infused, and the de¬ 
ficiency supplied almost wholly by carbonate of lime? 
Many varieties show no less surprising differences in 
