62 Mr. Sopwith on the Mining Districts. [March 9, 1855. 



ten thousand houses, and eighty-eight thousand inhabitants. 

 Gateshead, on the opposite bank of the Tyne, has three thousand 

 five hundred houses, and twenty-five tliousand inhabitants — together, 

 a population of one hundred and thirteen thousand. North and 

 South Shields, lying on opposite sides of the Tyne at its mouth, 

 have nearly eight thousand houses, and sixty thousand inhabitants ; 

 and this amount is somewhat exceeded by Sunderland. These 

 towns, with the city of Durham, altogether contain upwards of 

 thirty thousand houses, and more than a quarter of a million in- 

 habitants, being about one-tenth of the population and houses 

 of the Metropolis ; the proportional number of inhabitants to 

 a house is nearly the same. The number of persons to a square 

 mile in Northumberland is one hundred and fifty-four ; in 

 Cumberland, one hundred and twenty-five ; but in Durham, owing 

 to the great number and extent of colliery and manufacturing 

 operations, the population is four hundred to the square mile ; and 

 from the same influence of mining conditions, the increase of 

 population in fifty years, from 1801 to 1851, which in Northum- 

 berland has been 79 per cent., and in Cumberland 6Q per cent., has 

 been in Durham 160 per cent. 



Several illustrations of the geology and mining of the North of 

 England, were separately noticed, as conveying a clearer idea than 

 could be conveyed by mere verbal description ; amongst these were 

 sections of strata in various parts of the lead mine districts, 

 showing the remarkable conformity which prevails over about 400 

 square miles of the country near the junction of the several counties 

 of Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and 

 Yorkshire, also sections of lead mines, showing the mode of access 

 by horizontal adits or levels, and vertical shafts, with the several 

 galleries and other excavations, for obtaining lead ore from veins : 

 the position of these relatively to the strata was delineated on several 

 drawings. 



[After the lecture, several excellent microscopic sections of coal, 

 from the North of England, were shown by Mr. Sopwith, in the 

 Library.] 



[T. S.] 



