We have now considered the original matter of which coal strata are composed to be of two kinds; the one pure bitumen or coal, as being perfectly inflammable or combustible; the other an earthy matter, with which proper coal may be variously mixed in its composition, or intimately connected, in subsiding from that suspended state by which it had been carried in the ocean.  It is a matter of great importance, in the physiology of this globe, to know that the proper substance of coal may be thus mixed with heterogeneous bodies; for, supposing that this earthy matter, which has subsided in the water along with coal, be no farther connected with the combustible substance of those strata, than that it had floated in the waters of the ocean, and subsided pari passu with the proper materials of the coal, we hence learn a great deal with regard to the state in which the inflammable matter must have been at the time of its formation into strata.  This will appear by considering, that we find schistus mixed with coal in the most equal or uniform manner, and in almost every conceivable degree, from the purest coal to the most perfect schistus.  Hence we have reason to conclude, that, at the formation of those strata, the bituminous matter, highly subtilised, had been uniformly mixed with the earth subsiding in the water.

Not only is the bituminous matter of coal found mixed in every different proportion with the earthy or uninflammable materials of strata, but the coaly or bituminous composition is found with perhaps every different species of substance belonging to strata.  This is certain, that we have the coaly matter intimately mixed with argillaceous and with calcareous strata.

Thus it will appear, that it is no proper explanation of the formation of coal strata, to say that vegetable matter is the basis of those strata; for though, in vegetation, a substance proper for the formation of bituminous matter is produced, it remains to know by what means, from a vegetable body, this bituminous matter is produced, and how it comes to be diffused in that subtile state by which it may be uniformly mixed with the most impalpable earth in water.  Could we once resolve this question, every other appearance might be easily explained.  Let us therefore now endeavour to discover a principle for the resolving of this problem.

There are two ways in which vegetable bodies may be, in part at least, resolved into that subtilised state of bituminous matter after which we inquire; the one of these is by means of fire, the other by water.  We shall now consider these severally as the means of forming bituminous strata, although they may be both employed by nature in this work.