PIT-COAL, in natural history, a genus of fossils, defined to be solid, dry, opake, inflammable substances, found in large strata, splitting horizontally more easily than in any other direction, of a glossy hue, soft and friable, not fusible, but easily inflammable, and leaving a large residuum of ashes.

Of this genus there are three species: 1. The hard, dusky, black coal, known by the name of Scotch coal. 2. The hard, glossy, black coal, known by the same name. 3. The friable, glossy, black coal, called Newcastle coal, as being chiefly dug about that town.