"were heretofore the bed of the sea1;" since PART III. beds of coals are found to lie in "concavities

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varying greatly in extent, from a few to many miles, and containing numerous strata of coal alternating with sand-stone, clay, &c."," which describes a formation analogous to an ancient sea-bed; since marine substances are found in the adjoining strata3; and since" numerous "sea-shells, and even bones of marine animals, "are found in imperfect coal, as in that of "Pomiers in Dauphiny," although none remain recognizable in perfect coals; a strong argument of probability seems to arise, that if the substance of coal is of vegetable origin, we are

CHAP. XI.

1 See above, p. 277.

* BRANDE, Manual of Chemistry, vol. iii. p. 291. ' DE LUC, Lett. Géol. p. 196.

• D'AUBUISSON, tom. ii. P. 299.

M. D'AUBUISSON subjoins the following note to his discussion of Coal, tom. ii. p. 294. "M. PROUST concludes, "from his chemical observations on coal, that its matter per"tained to organized substances; and, after having remarked, "that it yields a much greater quantity of carbon and bitumen "than our vegetables, he says; If coal is the result of "organic productions similar to ours, its imbedment in the "earth has not only annihilated every vestige of organization, "but has entirely dissolved and recomposed its elements, so as to convert them into these fossil masses.'”—Journal de Physique, tom. Ixii.

сс

CHAP. XI.

PART III. to seek for that origin in marine vegetation, and not in terrestrial; that the beds of coals, in their extensive concavities, were perhaps immense accumulations of fuci, &c., loaded with the various animal substances which shelter among them; and which were overwhelmed by vast aggerations of the loose soils of the sea in the course of its retreat, and were left for decomposition by the chemical action of the marine fluid which they contained, and with which the enclosing and compressing soils were saturated. In this class of vegetation, so circumstanced, it is perhaps possible, that the ingredient may yet be found which was uniformly wanting in the carbonization of wood of earthly growth. At all events, there would seem to remain an higher probability, if coal be a vegetable substance, that such immense, continuous masses of that substance pertained to the sea-bed in which they are found collected, than that they were transported thither from a distant continent; especially, since so vast a proportion of the vegetable creation, as that peculiar to the sea, could not have been altogether annihilated, and remains to be accounted for.

And this may guide us to a final explanation of the phænomena which caused M. D'Aubuisson to doubt, whether he ought to connect coal with intermediate, or with secondary formations;

"The

CHAP. XI.

in the statement of which doubt, he approxi- PART III. mates so nearly to the Mosaical geology. "intermediate class (he observes, with Werner), "pertains to an epocha, when a revolution took

place in nature, which, according to the "evidence of the numerous indications which we see, was perhaps the most violent of those that happened during the formation of the "mineral crust of the globe. There is, indeed,

great uncertainty in fixing the limits between this class and those which adjoin it; but, I "think that they will be assigned with suf"ficient exactness, if we say; that the inter"mediate class is composed of the same rocks as "the primitive, but alternating with some others

..

containing relics of organic beings, and a

particular sand-stone. We may, perhaps, "further say; that the intermediate soils are "those which succeed, in the order of time, from "coal-beds to the first appearance of organized

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beings. I purposely avoid affirming, in this definition, whether or not the coal pertains to "the intermediate class1."

But, if coal be marine vegetation, originally produced in a bed which must have been of the earliest intermediate formation, since it was

1 Tom. ii. p. 199.

CHAP. XI.

PART III. formed by the first disruption and depression of primitive formations, according to the Mosaical geology; then it will naturally be found at the point, at which the definition of M. D'Aubuisson supposes; and it will have been subsequently buried under the accumulations of secondary formations which are now found above it, and which will have taken place during the agitations and struggles of the departing ocean.

It would be gratifying to learn, that the eminent chemist who has already applied his mind to this inquiry, or his able and distinguished friend the author of the Manual of Chemistry, have been disposed to lend the benefit of their skill and science to the examination, at least, of the subject, which is here, with great deference, suggested for their consideration.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAP. XII.

I SHALL now beg leave, in my turn, to propose PART III. a problem to the mineral geology, relative to its assumption; that the revolution which occasioned the destruction of the animal races of which we discover fossil eruvia, was different from that which established the progenitors of the present human race in Asia. And I shall propose my problem in the words of a writer, of whom the mineral geology can entertain no mistrust, as writing under too strong an influence of the Mosaical geology.

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"The Camel," says Buffon," is more completely a slave than any other of the domestic "animals; because, in all the other species, "such as the horse, the dog, the or, the sheep, "the swine, &c. we find some individuals in a "state of nature; animals of the same species "which are wild, and which man has never

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brought under his subjection. Whereas, in "camels, the entire species is enslaved; it is no

where found in its primitive state of independence "and liberty'." Now, the domestici of an

'Hist. Nat. du Chameau, tom. iv. p. 338. 4to.