Not a great many years ago the “bigwigs” in England were assembled in conclave, and the élite of science was called before them. There were a great many lumps of a blackish-brown substance on the table, and a great deal of smelling, and burning, and poking of the same black lumps by the same “bigwigs” and learned men. It was the great “Torbane Hill Coal” case.

“The point was in question, as all the world knows, To what the said substances ought to belong.”

Was it pure carbon? Was it carbonaceous shale? Was it shale without much carbon? Was it carbon without much shale? Was it bituminous shale? Was it coal-shale? Was it cannel? Was it coal?

We are afraid to say how many guineas were spent, or how many microscopes were busy in London and Edinburgh. But after all the question was simply this, “What is coal?” We are not going to try to give a definition; but if we can show our young readers (and there are, we hope, a good many of them) a few of the facts connected with the structure, contents, mode of formation, &c., of a coal-field, perhaps we may be able to answer the formidable query, “What is coal?” without calling in the aid of counsel, and our fee is—one shilling. As this is a Christmas lecture for our young friends, we hope our senior readers will not take it amiss if elementary phrases are introduced, and a few woodcuts given to illustrate what they know very well. And perhaps we may be allowed to speak in the first person singular; it is more conversational.