But, be that as it may, the
fact that coal is buried forest is not affected.
Meanwhile, the shape and arrangements of sea and land must have been
utterly different from what they are now. Where was that great land,
off which great rivers ran to deposit our coal-measures in their
deltas? It has been supposed, for good reasons, that north-western
France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany were then under the sea; that
Denmark and Norway were joined to Scotland by a continent, a tongue
of which ran across the centre of England, and into Ireland, dividing
the northern and southern coal-fields. But how far to the west and
north did that old continent stretch? Did it, as it almost certainly
did long ages afterwards, join Greenland and North America with
Scotland and Norway? Were the northern fields of Nova Scotia, which
are of the same geological age as our own, and contain the same
plants, laid down by rivers which ran off the same continent as ours?
Who can tell now? That old land, and all record of it, save what
these fragmentary coal-measures can give, are buried in the dark
abyss of countless ages; and we can only look back with awe, and
comfort ourselves with the thought--Let Time be ever so vast, yet
Time is not Eternity.
One word more. If my readers have granted that all for which I have
argued is probable, they will still have a right to ask for further
proof.
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