91 



seems to have been discovered in several previous sinkings to the 

 same series in other parts of the district. 



The writer has not been able to obtain particulars of some of 

 the earlier shafts, which were sunk many years ago ; but he is 

 indebted to the Managers of various neighbouring Collieries 

 for the following information on the subject. 



At Braysdown Colliery, where, about the year 1862, the shaft 

 was sunk from the Eadstock to the Farrington series, the 

 Manager reports as follows : — 



" The water found in the sinking to the Farrington series was 

 a little Salt before we came to the Red Shales ; after passing 

 through these it was and is at the present time intensely Salt ; 

 it was very much like brine, from the Red Shales down to 

 where we left off sinking. 



" The water is most destructive to iron and steel, destroying 

 their properties by eating them away, exposing the grain of iron 

 as if it was wood, and making it very hard and uncertain. It covers 

 wood with a coat almost like sheet iron, and preserves it from 

 decay. At the sides of the roads where it runs, it leaves a 

 thick sediment very much the colour of blood, but perhaps a 

 little darker. This I believe to be largely composed of iron, 

 and it is very heavy indeed. 



" These Springs of water do not increase with us in any case, 

 and if they decrease it is very little indeed, having remained 

 much the same for the last twenty-four years." 



At Foxcote Colliery, where the same ground was afterwards 

 proved, a similar result was experienced. The then Manager 

 informs me that " at a depth of 531 feet from the surface, and 

 in a very hard bed of Grey Sandstone, 33 feet in thickness, he 

 met with a Spring which yielded 700 gallons per hour. Also 

 that 87ft. 9in. below this bed he had another Spring, which 

 yielded 96 gallons per hour ; and again, at a point 391 feet 

 lower down, he cut a third Spring, yielding 80 gallons per hour, 

 which so increased in going downwards that the sinking had to 



