The whole evidence we possess as to the nature of Coal proves it to
have been originally a mass of vegetable matter. Its microscopical
characters point to its having been formed on the spot in which we
find it, to its being composed of vegetable tissues of various kinds,
separated and changed by maceration, pressure, and chemical action,
and to the introduction of its earthy matter, in a large number of
instances, in a state of solution or fine molecular subdivision. Dr.
Redfern, from whose communication to the British Association we quote,
knows nothing to countenance the supposition that our coal-beds are
mainly formed of coniferous wood, because the structures found in
mother-coal, or the charcoal layer, have not the character of the
glandular tissue of such wood, as has been asserted.
Geological research has shown that the immense forests from which our
coal is formed teemed with life. A frog as large as an ox existed in
the swamps, and the existence of insects proves that the higher order
of organic creation flourished at this epoch.
It has been calculated that the available coal-beds in Lancashire
amount in weight to the enormous sum of 8,400,000,000 tons. The total
annual consumption of this coal, it has been estimated, amounts to
3,400,120 tons; hence it is inferred that the coal-beds of Lancashire,
at the present rate of consumption, will last 2470 years. Making
similar calculations for the coal-fields of South Wales, the north of
England, and Scotland, it will readily be perceived how ridiculous were
the forebodings which lecturing geologists delighted to indulge in a
few years ago.