We hear the
echoing sound of the tools; and we see great blocks and heaps that they
have broken away, and loaded into little cars that stand ready, here and
there, to be drawn by mules to the foot of the slope.
Now, are you curious to know what this treasure is? Have you seen
already that it is only coal, and do you wonder that I think it is so
precious? Look a little closer, while our guide lets the light of his
lamp fall upon the black wall at your side. Do you see the delicate
tracery of ferns, more beautiful than the fairest drawing. See, beneath
your feet is the marking of great tree-trunks lying aslant across the
floor, and the forms of gigantic palm-leaves strewed among them. Here is
something different, rounded like a nut-shell; you can split off one
side, and behold there is the nut lying snugly as does any chestnut in
its bur!
Did you notice the great pillars of coal that are left to uphold the
roof? Let us look at them; for perhaps we can examine them more closely
than we can the roof, and the sides of these halls. Here are mosses and
little leaves, and sometimes an odd-looking little body that is not
unlike some of the sea-creatures we found at the beach last summer; and
every thing is made of coal, nothing but coal. How did it happen, and
what does it mean? Ferns and palms, mosses and trees and animals, all
perfect, all beautiful, and yet all hidden away under this hill, and
turned into shining black coal.
Now, I can very well remember when I first saw a coal fire, and how odd
it looked to see what seemed to be burning stones.
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