NATURAL HISTORY. 



329 



on each side of the road, at a pro- 

 per distance, for the sohd iron 

 wheels of the waggon to move up- 

 on ; the wheels are confined from 

 running off from the wood by a 

 protuberant rim of iron on the in- 

 terior side of each wheel. The 

 road is made so as to have a gentle 

 descent along its whole length, so 

 that the loaden waggon runs from 

 the pit to the staith without any- 

 horse to draw it ; where the descent 

 is so much that the motion would 

 be too quick, a man, who is mount- 

 ed behind the waggon, by pressing 

 down upon one wheel a piece of 

 wood, called the convoy, which is 

 fixed to the waggon for that pur- 

 pose, can restrain the too rapid 

 motion and regulate it properly. 



A horse is used to draw the empty 

 waggon back again to the pit from 

 the staith, by an easy ascent along 

 another similar waggon-way, laid 

 along the side of the former at about 

 three feet distance ; thus it is so 

 contrived, that the loaden and 

 empty waggons never meet or in- 

 terfere with each other, 



Tlie staith is a large wooden 

 building on the west side of the 

 town adjoining to the harbour and 

 covered in. In this staitli are fixed 

 five hurries or spouts, at such a di- 

 stance from each other, that a ship 

 of three hundred tons burden can 

 lie under each hurry and receive a 

 loading at one time. The staith is 

 about thirty-seven feet above the 

 level of the quay, and when the 

 waggons arrive there, the bottom of 

 each v/aggon is drawn out and the 

 coals are dropped from thence into 

 the hurry or spout under it, through 

 which they run down into the ship 

 laid below to receive her loading. 

 The hurries or spouts lie with aa 



inclining slope of about forty-five 

 degrees. 



When there are no ships ready to 

 receive coals they are deposited in 

 the staith, which will contain about 

 six thousand tons, Dublin measure, 

 or three thousand waggon loads. 

 These coals thus deposited are once 

 more put into waggons and dropped 

 through the hurries or spouts into 

 ships, when there are more vessels 

 than the usual daily supply of coals 

 will load- There have been two 

 hundred waggon loads, or four 

 hundred Dublin tons, sliipped from 

 the pits in one day, and an equal 

 quantity on the same day from the 

 staith, making- in the whole about 

 eight hundred tons, Dublin mea- 

 sure. 



By the contrivance of waggong 

 and waggon-roads, one horse carries 

 as much coals at once as tvi'enty- 

 four horses used to do upon their 

 backs before this invention. 



The fourth winning or extent of 

 coal drained was made about eighty 

 years ago, at a place called Saltom 

 near the sea, about a mile south- 

 west of Whitehaven. This was a 

 very expensive undertaking; it was, 

 however, deemed absolutely neces- 

 sary, as on the coniplction of this 

 depended the future success of this 

 colliery. A fire-engine was there- 

 fore erected here with a twelve feet 

 boiler, a cylinder forty inches in 

 diameter, and a pump seven inches 

 in diameter. The pumps were di- 

 vided into four sets or lifts, the pit 

 being one hundred and fifty-two 

 yards in perpendicular depth. It 

 was perceived necessary, however, 

 a few years afterwards, to erect a 

 second steam-engine in this place, 

 of the same dimensions as the first, 

 because the water was increased 



very 



