Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/400

 396 of older rocks, and from chemical precipitates,) on those lower spaces into which the detritus of ancient elevated regions was transported by the force of water; the second raising these strata from the sub-aqueous regions in which they were deposited, by forces analogous to those whose effect we occasionally witness, in the tremendous movements of land, that form one of the phenomena of modern Earthquakes.

I am relieved from the necessity of entering into details respecting the history of the Coal Fields of our own country, by the excellent summary of what is known upon this interesting subject, which has recently been given in a judicious and well selected anonymous publication, entitled The History and Description of Fossil Fuel, the Collieries, and Coal ''Trade of Great Britain. London'', 1835.

The most remarkable accumulations of this important vegetable production in England are in the Wolverhampton and Dudley Coal Field, (Pl. 65, Fig. 1,) where there is a bed of coal, ten yards in thickness. The Scotch Coal field near Paisley presents ten beds, whose united thickness is one hundred feet. And the South Welsh Coal Basin (Pl. 65, Fig-2,) contains, near Pontypool, twenty-three beds of coal, amounting together to ninety-three feet.

In many Coal fields, the occurrence of rich beds of iron ore in the strata of slaty clay, that alternate with the beds of coal, has rendered the adjacent districts remarkable as the site of most important Iron foundries; and these localities, as we have before stated, (p. 65,) usually present a further practical advantage, in having beneath the Coal and Iron ore, a substratum of Limestone, that supplies the third material required as a flux to reduce this ore to a metallic state.

Our section, Pl. 65, Fig. 1, illustrates the result of these geological conditions in enriching an important district in the centre of England, near Birmingham, with a continuous succession of Coal mines, and Iron foundries. A similar result has followed from the same causes, on the north-east