CHAPTER XIX.
Proofs of Design in the Dispositions of Strata
of the Carboniferous Order.
In reviewing the History and geological position
of vegetables which have passed into the state of
mineral coal, we have seen that our grand supplies
of fossil fuel are derived almost exclusively from
strata of the Transition series. Examples of
Coal in any of the Secondary strata are few and
insignificant ; whilst the Lignites of the Tertiary
formations, although they occasionally present
small deposits of compact and useful fuel, exert
no important influence on the economical condition
of mankind.*
* Before we had acquired by experiment some extensive
knowledge of the contents of each series of formations which the
Geologist can readily identify, there was no a priori reason to
expect the presence of coal in any one Series of strata rather
than another. Indiscriminate experiments in search of coal, in
strata of every formation, were therefore desirable and proper,
in an age when even the name of Geology was unknown ; but
the continuance of such Experiments in districts which are now
ascertained to be composed of the non-carboniferous strata of
the Secondary and Tertiary Series, can no longer be justified,
since the accumulated experience of many years has proved,
that it is only in those strata of the Transition Series which have
been designated as the Carboniferous Order, that productive
Coal mines on a large scale have ever been discovered.
It remains to consider some of the physical
operations on the surface of the Globe, to which
we owe the disposition of these precious Relics
of a former world, in a state that affords us access
to inestimable treasure of mineral Coal.
We have examined the nature of the ancient
vegetables from which Coal derives its origin,
and some of the processes through which they
passed in their progress towards their mineral
state. Let us now review some further important
geological phenomena of the carboniferous
strata, and see how far the utility arising from
the actual condition of this portion of the crust
of the globe, may afford probable evidence that
it is the result of Foresight and Design.
It was not enough that these vegetable remains
should have been transported from their
native forests, and buried at the bottom of ancient
lakes and estuaries and seas, and there
converted into coal ; it was further necessary
that great and extensive changes of level should
elevate, and convert into dry and habitable land,
strata loaded with riches, that would for ever
have remained useless, had they continued entirely
submerged beneath the inaccessible depths,
wherein they were formed ; and it required the
exercise of some of the most powerful machinery
in the Dynamics of the terrestrial globe, to effect
the changes that were requisite to render these
Elements of Art and Industry accessible to the