(273) 
An Account of the Mineral-Field between Airdrie and Bath- 
gate, and from Bathgate to Edinburgh and Leith. By ROBERT 
BALD, Esq., F.R.S.E., M.W.S., Mining-Engineer. (Com- 
municated by the Author.)* 
The mineral-fields of which I am now to give an account, 
extend from the town of Airdrie, situate about eleven 
miles east from Glasgow, to the town of Bathgate, in the 
county of Linlithgow, and from Bathgate to Edinburgh and 
Leith. 
Until a late investigation was made by Mr William 
M‘Creath and myself, the minerals of Bathgate were re- 
garded as of little value, as the collieries west from the town 
of Bathgate were upon a very small scale, and the whole 
output of coals very limited. 
The ironstone and other useful minerals were reckoned 
of no value, and were thrown aside as rubbish ; but since the 
investigation made last year (1846), the Bathgate mineral- 
field has risen in value to a very great degree, and the sys- 
tematic view of the minerals obtained, which had not been the 
case formerly, has effected this change. 
The collieries upon this mineral-field were isolated as to 
sales ; but now thata railway isin course of being completed, 
with its branches, the value of this mineral-field will be re- 
alised, and the minerals brought abundantly to market by 
their transit, both to the west and east, to Edinburgh and 
Leith. 
In describing this extensive mineral-field, it may properly 
be divided into five distinct sections, viz. : 
1s/, From Airdrie to West Craigs Inn. 
2d, From West Craigs Inn to the outcrop or commence- 
ment of a lower bed of ocak of the Bathgate coal-field. 
3d, The Bathgate coal-field. 
4th, The hill ground immediately east of Bathgate. 
* Read before the Wernerian Natural Ilistory Society, 13th March 1847. 
