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314 TnROUGH NOR
rocks were bare throughout the course, others in
various stages of re-vegetation.
What must be the effect of this if continued for
ages, for the whole of a geological period ?
A little reflection will enable us to answer this
question. These avalanches consist of trees and
fragments of rock and soil.
It is evident that the stones and all such dense
material will sink to the bottom at once, and rest
at the foot of the slope like an ordinary subaerial
talus ; but not so the trees. They will float for a
while; the impetus of their fall must launch them
forward towards the middle of the estuary, where
they will spread about, and ultimately, as they
become saturated, they will sink, and thus will be
pretty generally distributed on the bottom, and
mostly at that portion of the bottom which is
beyond the reach of the stony and earthy de’bris.
Thus in the clear-water fjords extending far
beyond the muddy mouths of rivers, these trees
will form the sole deposit, minus the very small
subsidence due to the infinitesimal small particles
that give the colour to clear water.
Here, then, we have a coal formation, or, more
strictly speaking, a lignite formation, in actual
progress, and one which 1 think is very instructive in
connection with the much-debated subject of the
mode of formation of coal seams.
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