The Vailan or annular theory: A synopsis of Prof. I. N. Vail's argument in support of the claim that this Earth once possessed a Saturn-like system of rings

by Stephen Bowers

METAMORPHISM OF CARBON BEDS.

When bituminous or lignitic coal, or even peat is subjected to a sufficient degree of heat it is converted into hard coal and sometimes into graphite. From this source some conclude that anthracite and all hard coals are metamorphosed beds of soft carbon. But how about the vast beds in aqueous crusts hundreds of miles from any igneous agencies? All anthracite coal changed from bituminous coal will contain a greater per cent. of ash than the coal from which it is derived. If it does not it is evidence that it never was bituminous coal.

Let us suppose a heavy fall of Annular carbon in the north Atlantic ocean, and that the Appalachian mountains were again under the sea. The carbon carried by the ocean currents southward would fall to the sea bottom in the more quiet waters. The heavy or anthracite dust would reach the bottom in deep waters where the lighter forms would not. Before the Appalachian upheaval, the eastern base of the system was farther out in the sea, and was in deeper waters than the western. The constitution of the coal itself, the condition of the sea bottom (sloping from the coast to the deep sea) point harmoniously to the annular origin of the carbon beds. The bituminous dust not being able to directly settle with the anthracite remained longer in suspension which accounts for its greater amount of ash. The farther south it floated, the more impure it became. The heaviest beds of anthracite will be found in the northern part of the great plateau, and principally in British America if the Vailan theory is true.

Fossil plants in coal are generally mineralized charcoal, and are difficult of combination. If the bed was composed of vegetable production the same difficulty would certainly characterize the mass. Hence the plant is simply a foreign body in a bed of mineral carbon. Coal seams have become so hard as to be planed off by eroding forces directly after being laid down, or before heavy beds had accumulated over them. Thus they could not have been formed by vegetable peat.