The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner • Paragraph 1168
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Nor does that represent by any means the whole of the usefulness of these tiny seaweeds. The oil shales, such as occur in Linlithgowshire and elsewhere, are supposed to be the muddy, oily deposits of such ponds as we have endeavoured to describe. The oil found in the shales was probably worked up by these diatoms in long-past geological ages. It may be used to-day either (1) to drive motors, (2) to light lamps, (3) to burn as so-called "wax" candles, (4) to eat (as an inferior sort of chocolate cream).