ART. IV. THE COAL BUSINESS OF THE UNITED STATES.*

WHEN We look at the uses to which fire is applied; when we consider how much it contributes to the comfort of man, either directly by affording warmth or in preparing his food, or indirectly in the scientific or manufac turing arts; when we reflect that without this important agent, most of the mechanical arts would be useless; that steam could not be generated; that tin, lead, copper, and iron—and, indeed, nearly all the metals-would be unknown, we cannot but acknowledge that to this ethereal element civilized society is indebted for the greatest portion of its superiority over savage life.

So important is its agency upon our destiny, that, in some countries, it has been worshipped as a deity, and in the Grecian mythology its introduction among men was attributed to the daring theft of Prometheus; and so much did the sire of gods resent the conferring this vast power upon man, that the punishment of its author was destined to be eternal, and terrible, in sublime horror, above all the retributive punishments of paganism. In the early stages of society the readiest means of obtaining fuel were furnished from the forest. Wood is not only excellent as fuel, but it is easy of access, and was, of course, first resorted to. As society advanced, wood became scarce, and it was wanted for so many purposes, that it was a desirable object to provide some other substances to be used as fuel.

Even in the United States, boundless as the forest seems, there is a deficiency of wood in certain portions of the country. In the old states men are beginning to estimate trees rather as timber than fuel, and the time is rapidly passing away, in all parts of the Union, when it is deemed that the best mode of disposing of the noble trees that grace the American woods is to turn them into ashes. On the sea-coast, that time has long since past, and for many years the community has been anxiously seeking some substitute for the rapidly diminishing forest.

Such is, in fact, the natural progress of society. A dense population, except in tropical climates, cannot be supplied with fuel from the annual growth of the soil, and the mode in which a substance, containing in a concentrated form the means of producing fire, is stored away in the earth for the use of man in the advanced stages of society, affords a striking proof of the wisdom and beneficence of that Power which created this planet and its inhabitants.

Although coal is now universally used in England, it is only about two centuries since it came into general use, and it was not known at the time of the conquest. In the borough laws promulgated in 1140, privileges are granted to those who supply towns with fuel, i. e. wood, turf, and peat. No allusion is made to coal, and it is not until nearly a century afterwards, or about six hundred years ago, that any mention is made of coal as a fuel. Pius II., who visited England in the fifteenth century, speaks of it as given for fuel to the poor beggars by the monks. In China it was, however, known much earlier; and Marco Paulo, who wrote in the thirteenth century, speaks of it as then used in the province

* A lecture delivered before the American Institute, by J. Blunt, Esq.; now first published in the Merchants' Magazine.

of Cathay, for fuel. The descriptions, both of Pope Pius and Marco Paulo, obviously show that its use for such purposes was a matter of wonder to them, and prove that it was not known to the nations of the continent.

At the end of the sixteenth century, in the reign of James the First, of England, its use in making iron was not known in Scotland. It may, therefore, be regarded as a modern discovery; and to its general application to the mechanical and manufacturing arts, may be fairly attributed their great advancement within the two last centuries. The present importance of the coal business in Great Britain may be estimated by the number of persons employed in it, amounting to 150,000, and furnishing 21,000,000 tons of coal, for the annual consumption of the island.

There are seven kinds of British coal. The first is known as Newcastle or Sunderland coal, being of a fat, bituminous quality, melting, when heated, to a mass, and caking, and producing but little ashes. This coal is also found in Scotland. The general character of Scotch coal is different. It is of two kinds; the rock coal, which burns to a good cinder, and produces but little ashes; and the splent or stone coal, which is slaty, and burns freely, with considerable smoke. It is found in very regular strata, like slate. The fourth kind is cannal or parrot coal, which is very light and inflammable, burning very freely, with light ashes. The fifth kind is culm coal, which is not easily ignited, emits neither smoke nor flame, but burns a long time, with a heat like anthracite or charcoal. It does not cake, nor produce much ashes. The sixth kind is jet, which is like the cannal coal, except that it breaks in the direction of the grain, whereas cannal coal breaks in any direction, and is of uniform texture. Jet is found in detached masses, and not in strata. The last is anthracite. Many curious speculations have been made as to the origin and nature of coal, whether mineral or vegetable. The wonderful sagacity and industry of modern geologists have, however, solved these doubts, and at the same time have thrown much light upon the construction of the earth, and Its general adaptation to the present uses of man. From the examination of fossil remains, and of the strata in which they are found, conclusions approaching to demonstration have been drawn, both as to the natural history of the globe and the modifications or revolutions which its surface has undergone. In penetrating the earth in low lands or intervales to a great depth, we come to horizontal strata, composed of various substances and abounding with marine productions. Every portion of the earth, every continent, every large island exhibits this phenomenon.

We are consequently brought to the conclusion that the sea has at some period covered the earth, and that it must have remained there for a long time in a tranquil state, in order to account for the formation of deposits so extensive and so solid.

What was the previous state of the universe at that sublimely mysterious period, when, in the language of inspiration, "the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep," must be left to conjecture.

It has been supposed that in the first stages of creation the material universe was in a gaseous, watery state, and that when the principle of gravitation was by omnipotent power imparted to matter, or, as expressed in scripture, "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," the parts began to cohere and arrange themselves in an order somewhat re

sembling that which now exists; the more dense or heavier particles falling to the centre in strata, then the water, and finally the atmosphere, gradually growing more rarified until it became difficult to draw the line between the outer regions of atmospheric air and pure ether. In the first moments of existence, the struggle between the rays of the sun and the dense vapors still floating in the atmosphere, must have seemed doubtful, and the first stage of creation might well refer to that process which divided the light from the darkness, while the second would as naturally relate to the gradual precipitation of the waters from the atmosphere, or "the division of the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament."

Then commenced the precipitation of those extensive horizontal strata, from which the opinion is derived that the waters at one period covered the earth.

Above these strata are to be found the inclined or vertical strata, which form the ridges of the secondary mountains. These strata, however, do not rest on the horizontal strata, but come up from beneath, as if they had broken through by some mighty convulsion, elevating their heads above the deep to form the dry land, while the receding waters were gathered together in the seas which contained them.

From the position of these inclined strata, it is evident that the earth has been subjected to one or more internal convulsions of a volcanic character, which have produced these seeming irregularities, and elevated these strata so as to bring them within the reach, to be made serviceable to the uses of the intelligent beings that were to inhabit its surface. It is also equally evident from the absence of all remains of organized matter in these strata, that those convulsions occurred before the creation of animate nature. Indeed, the heat of the globe during these convulsive throes, of which there is abundant evidence, would of itself have prevented the existence of organized life.

From the abundance of the remains of marine animals found in the strata through which the inclined strata have been forced, we may fairly infer that the first productions of creative wisdom were the inhabitants of the sea and the aquatic plants.

During the early stages of their existence, they were exposed to volcanic eruptions, which, by the sudden imparting of heat to the water, or by noxious gases or bituminous mud, must have destroyed myriads of the inhabitants of the sea, and thus have contributed to the rapid formation of the strata where their remains are now found attended with the clearest evidence of the manner of their destruction. No small portion of the present surface of the earth is formed from the remains of the population of the ancient seas, which are heaped up into stupendous monuments of the work of mortality during the first stages of creation.

The vegetation of this period was as simple as the contemporaneous classes of animals. The latter, except the fishes, were without vertebræ, and the plants were of the simplest character, and generally of the cryptogamous order. The fossils of the carboniferous period indicate the existence of ferns, grasses, plants similar to horsetails, and vascular vegetables of a gigantic character, and proving their development in a climate of much higher temperature than now prevails even in the tropics, and in an atmosphere surcharged with carbonic acid gas. Their growth would be rapid under such circumstances beyond any idea which can now be

formed of vegetation, and the absorption of carbon by the plants from the air, would be a process essential to prepare it for the respiration of mammiferous animals.

It would be difficult for one so superficially acquainted with geology to describe accurately the different periods when these various classes of animals and vegetables occupied the earth.

It is sufficient to know that marine productions preceded those of the land; and the antiquity of the formations in which vegetables of the first periods of creation are found, prove that on the land life began in the vegetable kingdom. Above these, and sometimes mingled with them, are found the fossil remains of birds and quadrupeds.

In the transition series are found those strata which are designated as the carboniferous order, or great coal-formation. The coal strata are formed of carbon, obviously produced from the remains of plants of antediluvian growth. They often consist of thin layers of vegetable remains, distinctly to be traced by the eye. In some mines, by the fall of the coal roof, a display is made of vegetable forms impressed upon the stone, some of species now extinct, and all bearing marks of the grace and beauty which characterize the works of nature.

A spectator of one of the Bohemian mines, describes them as if he had been transported by enchantment into the forests of another world. He beholds (as he declares) trees of forms and characters now unknown upon the surface of the earth, presented to his senses almost in the beauty and vigor of their primeval life; their scaly stems and bending branches, with their delicate apparatus of foliage, are all spread forth before him, little impaired by the lapse of countless ages, and bearing faithful records of extinct systems of vegetation which began and terminated in times of which these relics are the infallible historians.

The coal strata alternate with indurated clay, sandstone, limestone, and strata of rich argillaceous iron ore, or iron stones. The limestone beds which form the foundation, are full of the remains of marine animals, while the fresh-water shells in the upper regions of the series, show that the more recent strata were deposited from fresh or brackish water.

It is also ascertained that one general principle prevailed throughout the successive periods of the secondary and tertiary formations, ever operating to maintain upon the earth the greatest amount of life consistent with its capacity to supply nutriment.

The connection between the vegetable and the insect tribes is so constant and immediate, that we may infer that so great a mass of plants as that preserved in coal strata must have been productive of countless swarms of insects, and the provision made for restraining the classes consuming herbs within due bounds, through the agency of carnivorous classes, would lead us to expect that during this period the latter classes would be found of extraordinary power and rapacity. This expectation is realized in the fossil remains of the great carnivorous class of spiders and scorpions which is found in the coal formation, fully establishing their existence at that early period, and that the vegetation provided for the support of the insect tribes they made their prey, must have been abundant beyond any idea now entertained of the rapidity of vegetable growth.

The vegetable remains found in the coal fields appear to have been deposited in the vicinity of tracts of dry land containing fresh-water lakes and mountains, and to belong to species found in climates of high tempe

rature.

The strata, although in a great degree horizontal, are often arranged in basins, which appear to have been gradually filled up by carbonaceous deposits brought by successive tides or floods of water.

The anthracite, in general, is so completely mineralized as to present no traces of vegetable origin; but in some bituminous strata there are found layers of vegetables converted into true mineral coal, preserving, when separated, perfect impressions of leaves and other parts of plants, and leaving no doubt that all coal is derived from the same source.

It remains for us to inquire how this mass of vegetable matter came to be deposited in strata within the reach of man, to be preserved as it were for his use and comfort, after the surface should be stripped by the increased demand of the wood which serves for fuel in the early stages of society.

In hazarding a conjecture concerning a process so enveloped in the darkness of antiquity, occurring in a period whose history is preserved only in fossil remains, it would be presumptuous to dogmatize.

It may be permitted, however, to remark, that so large a mass of vegetable remains could scarcely be preserved except by some process involving their contemporaneous destruction. The successive deposits of plants of periodical growth would have been attended with decay and decomposition, which would have unfitted them for the purposes to which they are now applied. Nor can it be supposed that one annual growth of plants upon the surface would suffice to supply a mass equal to the strata of coal beneath.

We must, therefore, infer that the productions of a much larger superficies than the extent of the coal field have been brought together by some agent, and that the deposit has then taken place. From the position of the vegetable remains and their perfect preservation, we may fairly conclude that they have been collected through the agency of water; and it is not unreasonable to infer that the same fluid that held them in a state of suspension, acted as a current in tearing them from the surface of the globe. That such a current has at some former period swept over the earth with stupendous force, we have too many proofs to permit us to doubt. It is equally clear that this current has flowed from east to west, excavating the valleys which run through the chains of lofty mountains, scooping out the deep gulfs and bays, and dividing the islands from the adjacent continents; that it has ploughed up the channels of the Red Sea and Mediterranean in its mighty effort to find a passage between Africa and Asia, while the great indentation formed by the Gulf of Mexico attests the action of the same current in its endeavor to divide South from North America. Other proofs might be accumulated as to the existence and course of this current, but my limits compel me to make a sugges tion as to its cause.

It will be readily conceded that upon the approach of any large body to the earth, a strong influence would be exerted upon the fluid parts of this planet by the attractive power of the approximating body.

In the case of the tides, that influence is now daily manifested by the heaping up of the waters on that side of the earth next to the moon, and a similar result is produced at the antipodes. When the sun and moon are on the same side of the earth, the effect is increased, and when they are in opposition, it is diminished. A nearer approach of a smaller heavenly body would produce a greater effect, and this influence would