Coal and Petroleum from Ancient Trees
ANCIENT TREES.—"The Freedman's Journal," a monthly paper published by the American Tract Society for Freedmen, in an illustrated article in the November issue states a very important truth. G. "PALMETTO TREES! says one looking at the picture. No, not palmetto-trees, nor pine-trees, nor fir trees, nor any kind of trees that grow now in the South or North, in this country or in any country. They are pictures of trees that grew long, long ago on the earth, * but they did not grow in vain. God made them for the use of man. By and by they died and were covered up in the earth. The branches, trunks, and roots were pressed together; and, after a long time, they became a solid black mass, and men now dig it up and call it COAL. We know that coal was made from these ancient trees, because sometimes pieces of the trees are found in the coal mines. It is wonderful how God stored up in the earth this coal for fuel, so that, when the forests are cut off, we can still have an endless supply to keep us warm, and to use in steamboats and railroads and in factories. "But what is still more wonderful is, that the millions of gallons of petroleum or rock-oil which this country produces every year comes from these same ancient trees. Just as pitch and turpentine come from the pine-trees of North Carolina, so rock-oil comes bubbling up from the earth out of the vast beds of coal. Of the United States, Pennsylvania produces the most coal and oil."