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the Upper Measures are found to increase iu thickness towards Neath and 

 Swansea, where they are veiy valuable. "WTiere all this coal has gone to I 

 would rather not speculate, except that we may reasonably suppose that it 

 has helped to form new strata of a subsequent geological era. Such then, 

 according to my notions, is the geological history of the South Wales Coalfield. 



Let us now look briefly into the interior, from which so many fortunes 

 have been realized, and in which still more have been lost, for nothing is so 

 precarious as coal-mining, especially now-a-days, when in addition to the uncer- 

 tainties of the earth's strata the colliery owner has to put up with the certainty 

 of colliers' strikes and the destructive influence of trades' unions. No matter 

 what is the state of affairs in the commercial world, no matter what capital he 

 has invested, no matter whether he is a good master or a bad master, he has to 

 encounter sooner or later the unreasoning and unreasonable hatred of delegates 

 and stTimp orators, who soon destroy in their listeners every sentiment of good 

 feeling between the employer and the employed, and every particle of gratitude. 

 The South "Wales colliers have only just emerged from one of these clouds (by no 

 means the first), and if they ever stop to consider the consequences, they 

 might see them in the banishment of trade to other places, the stoppage of 

 collieries and works, and in the increase of the poor rates. 



With regard to the interior of the Coalfield, I have already alluded to 

 the Upper Measures, or rather what remains of them in tliis district. They 

 consist of two veins of coal— the Mynyddslwyn vein and the Troedyrhiw vein ; 

 the latter the lowest in position, and separated from the other by some 250 

 yards of sandstone. These sandstones are a vei-y important feature in the 

 outward appearance of the Coal-basin, as they fonn the long ranges separating 

 the parallel valleys, and which I have described as " terraced" at the bend of 

 the North Crop. They are usually called Pennant Sandstones, and are hard 

 micaceous rocks, only good for roofing purjjoses. In some parts of the district 

 they become a white silicious conglomerate, and are then known as the Cock- 

 ahoot Rocks, which form a useful horison to the mining engineer. But although 

 the Pennant Rocks in the east of the basin contain only these two seams of coal, 

 they soon thicken as they go westward, and become more valuable as to their 

 mineral contents ; the Town-hill, near Swansea, which is of these beds, contain- 

 ing 12 seams of coal. It has been the fashion with some geologists to speak of 

 the Pennant Rocks as the Middle Coal Measures, but it seems to be a useless 

 division, and tends to confusion. Some distance below the Troedyrhiw coal we 

 came upon the Old Man's Coal and the Soap Vein, the uppermost beds of the 

 Lower Measures. Now, although from their association with the Ironstone 

 Measures, the Lower Coal Measures are very much more important and valuable 

 than the Upper Measures, I will not detain you with a seriatim description of 

 each seam, but will merely glance at the general arrangement of the strata and 

 their fossil remains, which, to us, is doubtless the most interesting part of the 

 subject. From the North Crop, where (as the name implies) the coals crop 



