PART II.

The Authracite Coal Formation.

"I will teach you to pierce the bowels of the earth, and bring out from the caverns of mountains metals which will give strength to our hands, and subject all nature to our use and pleasure."-Dr. Johnson.

COAL is indisputably a vegetable production, and occupies a position low down, among the earliest deposits of the primeval earth. For a long time it was hard to recognize its vegetable origin, because the fact opened the door to some of the grandest and most wonderful phenomena ever grasped by philosophy-originating theories and hypotheses, as it did, which conflicted not only with every previous opinion, but seemingly struck a heavy blow at the truths of revealed law. Instead of the earth being but a few thousand years old, the coal deposits prove it to be of great and incalculable antiquitynumbering its years not by centuries, but rather by thousands and millions far anterior to the flood. Nor is its wonderful antiquity inconsistent, as was at first supposed, with the doctrines of divine revelation.* Science and Religion are identical in their true mission,

*Prof. Silliman, during a recent course of lectures on Geology, before the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, stated, decidedly, that there is no conflict between geology and the scripture history. The case is widely different from that of astronomy, more than two hundred years ago, which was condemned as heretical, because the scriptures described the appearances of the heavens only, which were all that in general mankind could be acquainted with.

But in the case of geology, there is not even a literal discrepancy. On the contrary, all the geological formations correspond in the order of time, and, as far as they are described in the scriptures, with the nature of the deposits,

and cannot fail to harmonize when properly understood. The beneficent doctrines of the great Mediator were promulgated at a period when the world was unprepared either for the startling truths or the practical benefits of science-hence it was left for the Bible to gradually

especially in the succession of created beings endowed with life, and man in both systems crowns the whole.

The only change required is extension of time, so as to afford enough to allow the events to happen by natural laws, established by the Creator, and expressive of his will, which is thus distinctly recorded in the earth itself. “The beginning” is not limited in time, and may extend as far back as the case may require; thus providing for all the early formations.

The periods called days are not necessarily such as we now denote by that word. There could be no regulation and division of time, as we now have it, until the sun was set to rule the day. Morning and evening may be, before that time, figurative expressions, denoting merely beginning and ending, as we say the morning and evening of life. The word day is used, in this short narrative, in all the senses in which it is ever employed in language, and significantly in the recapitulation or summary; in the beginning of the second chapter, day is used for the whole period of the creation, and in the same sense in various other parts of the scriptures.

The periods required for all the amazing series of events recorded in the earth are necessarily long; and if time was measured by natural days in the fifth and sixth periods, during the creation and sepulture of innumerable races of marine and terrestrial animals, there must have been a repetition of very many of those days to make out a long epoch, which right as well be regarded at once as a period of sufficient length for the work.

The Sabbath stands by itself, after the work is finished, a moral institution, having no necessary connection with the preceding physical events. By it man is every week reminded of his Maker and his destination, and although neither morning nor evening are in the Genesis named in connection with the Sabbath, it has no doubt always been of the same length as now, and does not belong to the geological epochs.

If this view is not acceptable, it is still indispensable, that in some way the time should be found, and no person fully acquainted with the structure of the earth can doubt that the time was very long, and no other person can be admitted as qualified to judge in the case. There is no reason to believe that man has been in the world more than six thousand years and the antiquity of the planet refers to ages before man was created. The allusion in the commandments, and in other parts of the scriptures, to the six days would of course be made in conformity with the language adopted in the narrative, which, being for the mass of mankind, was necessarily a popular history, although of divine origin; and the historian adopted a division of time that was in general use,

prepare and guide fallen man to a higher and nobler destiny, rather than to confound and corrupt him with a premature and unnatural perception of the mysteries of the universe, and the great social and physical laws that impel him onward. This is the mission of the

although as to half the time, at least, it was inconsistent with astronomical laws. Extension of the time to such a length as to cover the events by the operation of physical laws removes every difficulty, interferes with no doctrine of religion, and prepares us to exclaim with our divine poets

These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good;
Almighty! thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair: Thyself how wondrous, then,
Unspeakable, who sits above the heavens,

To us invisible, or dimly seen in these thy lower works.
Yet these declare thy goodness beyond thought,

And power divine.-Milton.

Thou giv'st its lustre to an insect's wing,

And wheel'st thy throne upon the rolling worlds.
From Thee is all that cheers the life of man,
His high endeavour and his glad success-
His power to suffer and his will to serve;
But oh! Thou bounteous Giver of all good,
Thou art of all thy gifts thyself the crown."

Give what thou canst; without Thee we are poor

And with Thee rich, take what thou wilt away.-Couper.

Bayard Taylor who, at the last advices received from him, was in Egypt, gives the following in connection with his visit to the great temple of AbouSimbel. "The sculptures on the walls of the grand hall are, after those of Medeenet Abou, and on the exterior wall of Karnak, the most interesting I have seen in Egypt. On the end wall, on either side of the entrance, is a colossal bas-relief, representing Remeses slaying a group of captive kings, whom he holds by the hair of their heads. There are ten or twelve in each group, and the features, though they are not coloured, exhibit the same distinction of race as I had previously remarked in Belzoni's tomb, at Thebes. There is the Negro, the Persian, the Jew, and one other form of countenance which I could not make out-all imploring with uplifted hands the mercy of the conqueror. On the southern wall, the distinction between the Negro and the Egyptian is made still more obvious by the coloring of the figures. In fact, I see no reason whatever to doubt that the peculiar characteristics of the different races of men were as strongly marked in the days of Remeses as at present. This is an interesting fact in discussing the question of the unity of origin of the races. I

Bible, and wherever its pages have been freely unfolded, there has science followed, and proclaimed her unyielding laws.

Referring the primary origin of the earth itself to the nebular theory of Herschell, it is supposed to be filled with everlasting fire-the result, probably, of its internal chemical organization, or the original incandescence of the planet. However this may be, the existence of universal heat within it, is amply demonstrated by the variation of the temperature of the atmosphere as we proceed downwards—a descent of a few thousand feet bringing us into a region entirely too warm to sustain life. It is further demonstrated by volcanic eruptions, which have through all time, and at various places, vomited out streams of burning lava and scoriæ, overflowing vast regions of country, as well as filling up the bottoms of the sea; while in more recent times they have buried entire cities-men, women, and children; servant and master; resident and stranger; the princely palace-the capitol-the column, and the arch-all buried in one common grave! To such eruptions, as the inevitable consequence of inextinguishable fire, should also be added the phenomenon of earthquakes, which are no less disastrous and terrible in their effects, and no less frequent in their visits. These elements of destruction have probably been awakened at irregular periods, and when fully aroused, have operated generally throughout the globe, rather than in isolated districts; hence gradually arose the vast mountain chains that now traverse the face of the globe, from pole to pole, throwing back, in their ascent, the waters of the sea, and dividing them by impenetrable barriers. Thus was slowly produced a material refrigeration of the climate for it must be understood that, previous to these epochs, the climate of the earth must have been universal, or nearly so, and that, at least, it was much warmer than it now is, even in the torrid zone. This is evident from the fact that coal is distributed in all quarters of the globe-in cold as well as in warm regions.

have as yet, though deeply interested in the subject, not looked into it sufficiently to take either side; but, admitting the different races of men to have had originally one origin, the date of the first appearance of Man on the earth, must have been nearer fifty thousand than five thousand years ago. If climate, customs, and the like, have been the only agents in producing that variety of race, which we find so strongly marked nearly four thousand years ago, surely those agents must have been at work for a vastly longer period than that usually accepted as the age of Man. We are older than we know; but our beginning, like our end, is darkness and mystery.

Whatever may have been the local characteristics of the primeval earth, it is certain that the climate was much warmer, and much more humid than it now is, or has been in modern times. The character of the vegetation abundantly establishes this. Of the large number of plants comprising the coal-bearing period, there are few which bear any analogy to existing species, and these are the exclusive productions of the torrid zone. Fossil Botany, it is true, is a comparatively recent science-yet enough has been elicited through its aid to afford a good idea of the vegetation of the ancient earth. The vegetation of the coal formation, according to Dr. Lindley, consisted of ferns in vast abundance; of large coniferous trees, of species resembling lycopodiacea, but of most gigantic dimensions; of vast quantities of a tribe apparently analagous to cacter or euphorbiacea, but perhaps not identical with them; of palms and other monocotyledons; and, finally, of numerous plants, the exact nature of which is doubtful. Of the entire number of species detected in this formation, twothirds are ferns. The fossils are divided by Botanists into the following genera, determined by the character of their fronds; pachypteris, sphenopteris, cyclopteris, glossopteris, neuropteris, odontopteris, anomopteris, tæaniopteris, pecopteris,louchopteris,clathropteris, schizopteris, otopteris, caulopteris and sigillaria, etc., the two latter occurring only as stems, and the last being considered by many as a dicotyledonous plant. Of these, figure 1 exhibits a specimen of the neuropteris, or

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nerve fern, which are plentifully distributed in the coal. Figure 2 is a specimen of the odontopteris, or tooth-fern, not so numerous as the former, but still characteristic of this formation. The next, Anomopteris, are seldom met with, but nevertheless flourished in this era.