LITMIR.BIZ

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of lime – as it exists in its various forms, as limestone, from which lime and cement are made, and marble, which is such an important element in the arts – is a substance of great importance to man. We have already noted some of the processes that nature uses in gathering up these substances from the ocean by the employment of various forms of animal life. Here is another. Whoever has visited the Bermudas has seen an island wholly formed of what is called coral rock. Coral is a structure produced by a peculiar form of sea animal that gathers up the calcareous or lime-like matter floating in the sea water, and builds a house of it in which to live during the little lifetime that is allotted to him. When he dies his children do not occupy the old home, but build a new one, which is a superstructure planted upon the old one as a foundation. This process of growth sometimes takes the form of a tree or plant, and coral trees grow upon trees and plants upon plants, until a structure is erected having its foundation upon the bottom of the ocean, that finally reaches up until it rises above the surface of the water; and here – after through years the water has brought sea-weed and drift to decay and form soil, and the birds have brought seeds and fertilization, and vegetable life is prospering – another animal called man builds his home upon it. The material that the coral is formed of is substantially the same as that we find in the minute shells of the limestone rocks.

      The great chalk cliffs that are found on the coasts of the English channel are the work of a sea animal microscopic in size. At one time it was a question among scientists how these chalk cliffs were formed, but when the microscope was invented this mystery, as well as many others, was solved. The chemical components of chalk are precisely the same as those of limestone. The microscope shows that chalk is almost wholly a product of very small organized shells. The animals who are the architects of the chalk cliffs are called "foraminifera" – bearing shells perforated with little holes. The chief difference between chalk and limestone seems to be in the size of the shells of which they are respectively made up and in the manner of the bonding of these shells together. The shells in a lump of chalk are held much more loosely than those in a lump of limestone. These intrepid workers are still actively changing the structure of the bottoms of seas and oceans, and forming new islands, which in turn become the substructure that supports new life, animal and vegetable. And when we consider the great part performed by these microscopic architects and builders it is not a misnomer to speak of the building of a world.

      CHAPTER III

      COAL

      Some time, long ago, some man made the discovery that what we now call coal would burn and produce light and warmth. Who he was or how long ago he lived we do not know, but as all earthly things have a beginning, we know that such a man did live and that the discovery that coal would burn was made. Coal, in the sense that we use the word here, is not mentioned in the Scriptures. According to some authorities, coal was used in England as early as the ninth century. It is recorded that in 1259 King Henry III. granted a privilege to certain parties to mine coal at Newcastle. It is further stated that seven years after this time coal became an article of export. In 1306 coal was so generally used in London that a petition was sent to parliament to have the use of it suppressed on the ground that it was a nuisance. Coal was used in Belgium, however, about 1200. There is a tradition that a blacksmith first used it in Liège as fuel. It was first used for manufacturing purposes about 1713.

      Coal is found laid down in great veins, varying in thickness, in various parts of the world in the upper strata of the Paleozoic period. The age in which it was formed is called by geologists the Carboniferous (coal-bearing) age.

      Before going on to account for the deposits of coal, let us stop a moment and consider what it is. Chemists tell us that coal is chiefly constructed of carbon, compounded with oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. There are many varieties, but all may be classified under two general headings – bituminous and anthracite. Bituminous coal contains a large amount of a tarry substance, a kind of mineral pitch or bitumen, which burns with a brilliant flame and a black sooty smoke, exceedingly rich in carbon. Anthracite coal is hard and stone-like in its texture, burning with scarcely any flame and no smoke. It produces a fire of intense heat when it is once ignited. There is another form of coal called cannel coal, which is a corruption of "candle coal," so called because a piece of this kind of coal when ignited will burn like a match or pine knot and give light like a candle. This is the richest of all the coal deposits in gases that are set free by heat, and for this reason is extensively used in the manufacture of what is commonly called coal gas. England produces a large amount of cannel coal, as well as another variety of bituminous coal, which latter, however, does not burn with such a black smoke as the coal found in the Ohio valley and the Western States of America. East of the Alleghany Mountains there is a region of anthracite coal that is very extensively worked and finds great favor in all parts of the country as fuel for domestic heating, especially on account of its great cleanliness.

      All of the coal beds have a common origin, and the difference in the quality of coal found in different parts of the country is due to many circumstances, some of which have never been explained. There is indisputable proof, however, that all coal beds are of vegetable origin. Geologists tell us that these coal beds were formed during an age before the earth had cooled down to the temperature that it has at the present time – an age when vegetation was forced by the internal heat of the earth instead of having to receive all its warmth from the sun's rays as we do now. Some of our readers are familiar with what is commonly termed a hotbed. A hotbed is made by putting soil on top of substances that will ferment and create heat underneath the soil. This heat from beneath will force vegetation and cause a much larger growth than there will be if left to the sun's rays alone. During the carboniferous age the earth was a great hotbed.

      The fossils of trees and plants, as well as reptiles, that we find in the great coal measures of the world, show that they were of large tropical growth, and this is shown not only in the temperate zone, but in the zone farther north. For ages and ages this rank growth of vegetation grew up and fell down until a great layer of vegetable matter was formed, which at a later time was covered over by other stratifications of earth material, so that these great layers of vegetable formation were hermetically sealed and pressed down by an enormous weight that increased as time went on. The formation of coal may be studied even at this day (for it is now going on) by visiting and examining the great peat beds that are found in various parts of the world. It is well known that peat is used as a fuel by many people, especially the peasantry of the old countries. If peat is pressed to a sufficient degree of hardness it burns in a manner not unlike some forms of coal. Peat is a vegetable formation and has been formed by the rank growth of various kinds of vegetation in swampy places. Of course, it lacks the purity of the coal that was formed during the carboniferous age, because of the much slower growth of vegetation now than during that time, and the opportunity that peat bogs offer for an intermixture of earthy with the vegetable matter. The fact that we find the imprint of trees and ferns and other vegetable growth of tropical varieties, as well as the fossils of reptiles, imbedded in the coal measures, proves that at one time this stratum was at the land surface of the earth. We also find that all of the formations of the Secondary and Tertiary periods are on top of the coal – and this shows that after the age of rank vegetable growth there was a sinking of the earth in many places far down into the ocean – so that vast layers of rock formed on top of these beds of vegetable matter. In England great chalk beds crop out in cliffs on the southern coast, and, as we have seen, these chalk rocks are largely made up of the shells of marine animals. London stands on a chalk bed, from six hundred to eight hundred feet thick. Indeed, England has been poetically called Albion, White-land, from this appearance of her coast.

      All of the great chalk beds were formed ages after the coal beds, as the latter are found in the upper strata of the Paleozoic period.

      A study of these strata will show that there are many layers of coal strata varying in thickness and separated by layers of shale and sandstone. How the shale and sandstone layers are formed will be the subject of a future chapter.

      From the position that the coal measures occupy, being entirely under the Secondary and Tertiary formations, it will be observed that they are very old. If we should examine a piece of ordinary bituminous coal we should find that there are lines of cleavage in it parallel to each other, and that it is an easy matter to separate the lump on these lines. If we examine the outcrop of a coal bed we will find that these

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