226 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MAR. 15, 



proved b}' the finding of old workings and old implements of 

 mining, such as oaken shovels tipped with iron, etc. 



Coal was rained in the Burnley area in the time of Henry 

 VIII.,* but only since the coraraencement of the present century 

 has mining became important, its progress being S3'nchronous 

 with the development of woolen, iron and cotton industries. 



The extent to which mining is now carried on is best shown 

 by the accompanying statistics extracted from the Second An- 

 nual General Report upon Mines and Quarries (1896), by Dr. C. 

 Le Neve Foster : 



Total quantity of coal raised, 1894, 23,116,003 tons. 



Total quantity of coal raised, 1895, 22,014,515 tons. 



Coal raised in 1895, value at the mines, £7,059,782. 



Fireclay, 128,680 tons. 



Total number of persons employed in and around mines in 

 Lancashire, 68,615. 



Millstone Grit Series. 



No description of the Lancashire Coal Measure would be 

 complete without a reference to the Millstone Grit Series, which 

 everywhere underlies the productive measures, and rises, as we 

 have seen, into moorlands on the north and east. 



The Millstone Grit Series, as its name implies, consists of 

 beds of hard quartzose grits often very coarse, and interbedded 

 with bituminous shales and a few thin coals. In a few cases the 

 coals have been worked to a limited extent, but they are gener- 

 ally much too thin to pay for working. 



The grit rocks are largely quarried for flags, building stone, 

 paving-stone and road-metal. The massively bedded rock bands 

 furnish huge blocks used as engine beds, and supports for heavy 

 machinery. 



The grits contain abundant impressions of plants, such as 

 Sphenopteris and Alelhopteris and occasionally large casts of 

 Lepidodendron and Sigillarioid stems. An examination of the 

 quarries in the Millstone Grits soon convinces the most sceptical 

 that they are consolidated sand beds, which accumulated close 

 in shore near a land area already supporting an abundant and 

 luxuriant flora allied to that of the coal. 



On the other hand, the intervening shales contain brackish and 

 marine forms of life more nearly related to those of the Yore- 

 dale shales and Carboniferous limestone below. A species of 

 Lingula is most common, but species of Froductidse, Streptor- 

 hynchus, Spirifera, Aviculopecten, Modiola, Posidoniella and 

 Ooniaiites also occur. Fish remains are rare. 



» Hull's Coal Fields of Great Britain, p. 220, 1891. 



