. Off-hand sketches : a companion for the tourist and traveller over the Philadelphia, Pottsville, and Reading railroad . FIG. 16.— ANTHRACITE COAL FORMATION 131 and obliquely, and traverse the beds in every direction. These pro-cesses have been traced to a distance of eight or ten feet from thestem, and had a horizontal range of twenty feet. From the extra-ordinary number of these plants, it is concluded that they havefurnished the material for the great bulk of our coal bods. From the general character of the vegetation, and the absence ofthe great mountain ranges which now conspic
. Off-hand sketches : a companion for the tourist and traveller over the Philadelphia, Pottsville, and Reading railroad . FIG. 16.— ANTHRACITE COAL FORMATION 131 and obliquely, and traverse the beds in every direction. These pro-cesses have been traced to a distance of eight or ten feet from thestem, and had a horizontal range of twenty feet. From the extra-ordinary number of these plants, it is concluded that they havefurnished the material for the great bulk of our coal bods. From the general character of the vegetation, and the absence ofthe great mountain ranges which now conspicuously mark the earthssurface, it is probable that water covered a far greater area of countrythan it subsequently did, while, at the same time, its mineral quali-ties must have been essentially different from what they are FIG. V, -THE COAL The land, lying low and in broad marshes, must have resembled, insome respects, our great western prairies, so well known for theirrank vegetation, which, added to the peculiar warmth and humidityof the climate, produced plants of extraordinary proportions—farexceeding our loftiest forest trees. The vegetable matter growingthus spontaneously under active stimulants, formed immense wildcoverings, by which it was peculiarly adapted to receive the ascend-ing charges of the elements constituting its growth. Fig. 17 exliibitsan ideal view of the coal vegetation. 132 OFF-HAND SKETCHES. Regarding the manner of deposit, much difference of opinionexists among Geologists. For a long time an opinion prevailed (andis still entertained by some), that the vegetable matter vras removedfrom the place of its grovs^th by drift, and deposited in the bottom ofthe sea, or the estuaries of lakes and rivers, where it underwent aprocess of fermentation and pressure from the s
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