Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 77 



Williams's excellent practical History of the Mineral Kingdom, and 

 repeated actual examinations of the distant coal formations, &c, — 

 I commenced here the most diligent researches for those "local in- 

 dications" whose undeviating laws point out the absolute existence 

 of mineral treasures, and which infallible criterions have evidently 

 led to the discovery of mines in almos t allj situations where they are 

 known. In the course of these investigations I was so fortunate as 

 to discover a real outburst of a stratum of coal (accompanied by all 

 its usual concomitants), and which I succeeded in distinctly tracing, 

 by numerous sinkings, for a distance of nearly three miles, along its 

 longitudinal line of bearing, the coal with the accompanying mea- 

 sures dipping into the basin where the trial is being made, and where 

 they have all been found lying in the regular successive order indi- 

 cated by their crops or bassets. I may here state that the adven- 

 titious hills, &c, which surround these measures, abound in masses, 

 fragments, and thin veins of coal and coal-smuts, which, though pos- 

 sessing no decisive characters in themselves, are, as Williams asserts, 

 so many signs of the coal neighbourhood : these indications have 

 been investigated, and their importance confirmed, by the testimony 

 of experienced geologists and practical men. From an admeasure- 

 ment along the line of declivity, from the pit to the crops, and the 

 best judgement which could be formed(under existing circumstances) 

 of the degree of inclination of the strata, it was calculated that a 

 workable seam of coal would not be found at a less depth than about 

 110 fathoms from the surface. We are now somewhat under that 

 distance; and there certainly is every reason to believe, from the na- 

 ture of the measures, and the immense quantities of coal they have 

 been for a length of time impregnated with, that a valuable delph will 

 ere long be hit upon. The whole of the measures hitherto explored 

 have been of the most promising description and decisive character as 

 real coal-measures, and found lying in the most regular stratified or- 

 der: the first 25 fathoms, consisting of strong slaty bind, contain 

 about 9 solid feet of excellent iron-stone, in beds from 3 to 10 inches 

 thick; immediately below this, about 30 feet of dun marl or free- 

 stone bands are found, alternating in layers from 1 to 3 inches thick; 

 to these succeeds a gray rock 27 feet thick j 20 fathoms of hard gray 

 or free-stone bands then occur, divided by thinnish strata of beau- 

 tiful light blue and black shales, containing 2 thin veins of coal ; 

 under these rocks lie 7 fathoms of a hard bastard dun, all much 

 impregnated with coaly matter; below this, an exceedingly hard 

 striped rock occurs, 30 inches thick ; then a red dun, or rather 

 shale, 1+ fathom ; then a rock, beautifully striped with black, white, 

 brown, and dun, about 34- fathoms ; next a brown dun, about 3 

 fathoms ; and, lastly, a strong black shale, occasionally finely 

 striped with white : the whole of the measures have been proved (as 

 colliers term it) by washings, and almost every inch of the last 

 30 yards has partaken very largely of the coal itself, which has 

 gradually increased in quantity down to the present depth } in the 

 sediment yielded by the washings of the last few yards, the pro- 



