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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
157
But
how
about
the
coal
itself?
It
seems
likely,
when
we
find
roots
below
and
leaves
and
stems
above,
that
the
middle
is
made
of
plants,
but
can
we
prove
it?
We
shall
see
presently
that
it
has
been
so
crushed
and
altered
by
being
buried
deep
in
the
ground
that
the
traces
of
leaves
have
almost
been
destroyed,
though
people
who
are
used
to
examining
with
the
microscope,
can
see
the
crushed
remains
of
plants
in
thin
slices
of
coal.
But
fortunately
for
us,
perfect
pieces
of
plants
have
been
preserved
even
in
the
coal-bed
itself.
Do
you
remember
our
learning
in
Lecture
IV,
that
water
with
lime
in
it
petrifies
things,
that
is,
leaves
carbonate
of
lime
to
fill
up
grain
by
grain
the
fibres
of
an
animal
or
plant
as
the
living
matter
decays,
and
so
keeps
an
exact
representation
of
the
object?
Now,
it
so
happens
that
in
a
coal-bed
at
South
Ouram,
near
Halifax,
as
well
as
in
some
other
places,
carbonate
of
lime
trickled
in
before
the
plants
were
turned
into
coal,
and
made
some
round
nodules
in
the
plant-bed,
which
look
like
cannon-
balls.
Afterwards,
when
all
the
rest
of
the
bed
was
turned
into
coal,
these
round
balls
remained
crystallized,
and
by
cutting
thin
transparent
slices
across
the
nodule
we
can
distinctly
see
the
leaves
and
stems
and
curious
little
round
bodies
which
make
up
the
coal.
Several
such
sections
may
be
seen
at
the
British
Museum,
and
when
we
compare
these
fragments
of
plants
with
those
which
we
find
above
and
below
the
coal-bed,
we
find
that
they
agree,
thus
proving
that
coal
is
made
of
plants,
and
of
those
plants
whose
roots
grew
in
the
clay
floor,
while
their
heads
reached
up
far
above
where
the
roof
now
is.
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