TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 75 



Numerous coloured sections, drawn to a large scale, and geological 

 maps, were exiiibited in illustration of the statements in the memoir. 

 It has been found impracticable, without the aid of engravings from 

 these beautiful and valuable drawings, to convey any proper notion, 

 within moderate limits, of the mass of curious facts made known by 

 this communication. It appears, indeed, the less necessary to attempt 

 an analysis of Mr. Buddie's Essay, since it is understood that the 

 author proposes to communicate it to the Natural History Society of 

 Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle on-Tyne, to whose Trans- 

 actions he has previously consigned several important sections of the 

 strata of the Newcastle coal-field. The following passages are ex- 

 tracted from the first section of the memoir. 



" On referring to the line of the crop of the coal, and the line of the 

 axis of the general dip of the strata, it would appear that this field of 

 coal, so far as it has hitherto been explored, although traversed by 

 various undulations and large faults, forms only a portion of an im- 

 mense trough or basin, the south-western, western, and northern mar- 

 gins of which we have yet only been able to trace. But as the strata, 

 so far as they have yet been explored, in the line of the dip under the 

 magnesian limestone, are conformable, there is reason to conclude that 

 the seams of coal extend far under the German Ocean before they 

 rise at the opposite margin of the basin, if that should be their form, 

 or are cut off by the extension of the magnesian limestone. 



" A great many seams of coal are found in this extensive district, 

 but they difier in number, character, quality, and thickness, in its 

 several portions, and it is seldom that more than five of workable 

 thickness co-exist, and it frequently happens that not more than one 

 or two occur in the same locality. In Monkwearmouth colliery, for 

 example, we find 31 seams of coal sunk through in a depth of 264 

 fathoms 4 feet 9 inches, containing an aggregate thickness of 47 feet 

 2 inches of coal, (including the foreign substances with which the 

 several seams are interstratified,) only one of which has yet been found 

 of workable thickness and merchantable quality. Those seams vary 

 in thickness from an inch and a half to 6 feet 2 inches and a half. In 

 Backworth Colliery 283 beds have been sunk and bored through within 

 a depth of 206 fathoms feet 1 1 inches from the surface, comprising 

 45 seams of coal, of the aggregate thickness of 60 feet 1 inch, inclu- 

 ding the foreign substances with which the coal is interstratified. Of 

 these seams only two or three can be considered of workable thickness 

 at the present era." 



It appears that the coal seams of the Newcastle district are very 

 variable in respect of the presence and thickness of interstratified shales 

 and sandstone called " bands." The most remarkable of these lies in 

 the High Main coal, and is called the " Heworth Band," from the 

 place of its first discovery. The direction of its Northern edge is 

 about N. 80° E. by compass. From Felling Collierj^, towards the 

 N. E., it traverses Walker, Hebbnrn, Bewick, Percy Main, and Colling- 

 wood collieries, to the outcrop of the seam near North Shields ; and in 

 the S.W. direction from Felling Colliery, it passes through Sheriff 



