Untitled

Wanganui Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1109, 6 March 1871, Page 2

Professor Huxley has contributed to the Contemporay Review a very excellent paper on the formation of coal. He has examined coal in plates so thin as to bo transparent, and he has arrived at the conclusion that the great bulk of the coal consists of the spore cases and spores,of plants of the club-moss kind. These* when shed from the plant, are highly resinous, and resist the influence of the weather, which breaks down the structure of the leaves and stems of plants. English coal whether bituminous or anthracite, confirmed by DrDawsonintheway recommended by Professor Huxley gave, however, very different results, and the j conclusion arrived at was that the bulk jof the is coal composed of the flattened back of sigillaroid and other trees, intermixed with leaves of ferns and other herbaceous debris, and with fragments of decayed wood, constituting mineral charcoal. Both authorities agree in the opinion that the plants grew and their debris accumulated where the coal is now found.