2nd §, No 26., June 28. °56.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
519 
In attempting to quell the riots it is recorded 
that one woman was killed, but I find no mention 
made of any females being left for execution. 
Wane 
Malta. 
Coal Pits of Durham and Northumberland (2"° 
S. i. 293.) — An inquiry as to the duration of this 
coal-field is one of no small interest. Dr. Thomp- 
son calculates that it may fairly be expected to 
yield coal for 1000 years, at the annual consump- 
tion of 2,000,000 chaldrons; but as we have no 
data by which to discover how much coal has 
already been consumed, we cannot tell how much 
of these 1000 years has already elapsed. Besides 
this, Dr. Thompson has taken the average annual 
consumption much too low for the present time. 
It appears that in this calculation, the area of the 
coal-field is very much under-estimated, being 
taken at 180 square miles. Professor Buckland, 
in his examination before the House of Commons, 
limits the period of supply to about 400 years. 
Mr. Bailey, in his Survey of Durham, states the 
period for the exhaustion of the coal to be about 
200 years. Some proprietors of the coal-mines, 
when examined before the House of Commons, 
extended the period of exhaustion to 1727 years. 
They assumed that there are 837 square miles of 
coal strata in this field, and that only 105 miles 
had been worked out. Wix11am Broop. 
Dublin. 
Derivation of the word “ Cash” (1* S. ix. 66.) 
— There can be but little doubt, that the word 
cash is derived from the Italian cassa, the chest 
in which Italian merchants kept their money, as 
do at the present time the Spaniards in their 
caja, the Portuguese in their caza, and the French 
in their caisse. 
The application of the word cash to money is 
altogether English, it not having a corresponding 
term in any other European lancuage. 
Cash having been so inconsiderately adopted 
instead of cassa (chest), entries in the cash-book 
(it should be chest-book) are made in English 
counting-houses in this unmeaning way, ‘Cash 
Dr” and “ Cash C';” whereas the chest, and not 
the money, is D* for what is put into it; and C* 
for what is taken out. 
Great mischief has too often arisen, as is well 
known in bankrupt courts, from the misuse of the 
word cash, in which large deficiencies often ap- 
pear; and which would not be the case, if the 
word chest were used as it ought to be. Instead 
of the cash account in the Ledger, it should be 
chest account; but we have yet much to learn in 
England regarding mercantile book-keeping. 
Approach of Vessels (2° 8. i, 418.) — Under 
this heading J. O. speaks of the well-known story 
of the English ships being seen by the look-out- 
man at the Mauritius, as if it were a peculiar gift 
of sight accorded to that individual. The circum- 
stance has been often brought forward by lec- 
turers upon optics; and I have heard them re- 
peatedly describe it as an instance of mirage, 
depending, not upon the peculiar power of the 
eye, but upon the state of the atmosphere: so 
that any person in the particular position of the 
beholder, at that moment, might have seen the 
refracted objects. I know that some persons have 
a peculiar extent of vision; but that has nothing 
to do with mirage, or seeing the refracted shadows 
in the air, of objects actually far out of sight. 
During a seven years’ service afloat, at the end of 
the old war, I repeatedly saw objects from the 
deck, and reported them, when not another 
officer in the ship, nor even the man at the mast- 
head, could get sight of them for a considerable 
time. It may serve to correct a popular error, as 
to a far-seeing eye not being lasting, to state that, 
being now mid-way between sixty and seventy, I 
retain my long sight to an extraordinary degree. 
W. B.C. 
Door Inscriptions (2™ S. i. 481.) —The follow- 
ing inscriptions were common in Queen Elizabeth’s 
reign : 
“ Would’st have a friend, would’st know what friend is 
best, 
Have God thy friend, which passeth all the rest.” 
“ What better fare, than well content agreeing with thy 
wealth, ? 
What better guest than trusty friend in sickness and in 
health.” 
Shakspeare’s England, ii. 268. 
At Auchinleck : 
“ Quod petis, hic est, 
Est Ulubris: animus si te non deficit zquus.” 
Hor. 1 Ep. 11. 30. 
Over the entrance of the railway station at 
Rome, with which a Mr. York is connected : 
“ Qui dove sono era gia oscuro Teneno, 
Ora qui sorgo spettacolo amirando, 
L’ esser mio fii vostro volere 
O York and Co.” 
Mackenzie Watcort, M.A. 
Cheap Literature (2"' S. i. 451.) —As another 
mode of dealing in printed books, I was amused a 
few years since by a man, in the square of the 
Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, who offered to the 
passenger a selection from a large stock at one 
paul (5d.) the Roman pound weight. He stood 
with his scales in his hand, and, by his impressive 
looks, was very anxious to do business. Having 
been a little hurried at the moment, I did not 
examine the collection; but could see, from the 
general appearance of the books, that they were 
the remnants of some old private library, and 
e 
