DAT-Coal, in Natural History, a name given by the miners of England, and the common people who live in coal countries, to that seam or stratum of the coal which lies uppermost in the earth. The same vein or stratum of coal usually runs a great way through the country, and dips and rises in the earth at different places; so that this upper stratum, or day-coal, is in the various parts of the same stratum, sometimes near the surface, and sometimes many fathoms deep. The subterranean fires found in some of our coal countries
feed principally on this coal; and are nearer to or farther from the surface as it rises or sinks.