30 Original Articles. [ Jan. 
The Denbighshire field, on the other hand, has a somewhat larger 
area, and holds a very much greater quantity of coal. It occupies about 
47 square miles, and has an available store of 490 millions of tons. 
The seams dip eastward (see Fig. 3), under large tracts of Permian 
and Triassic beds, and were the minerals capable of being followed 
in the direction of the dip, the supply might be almost indefinitely 
extended. The quantity raised in 1861 from these two coal-fields, 
amounted to 1,870,250 tons. 
North Staffordshire Coal-field——Considering its extent, this is one 
of the richest, and at the same time least developed, coal-fields in 
Britain. With an area of 75 square miles, a vertical thickness of 
5,000 feet of coal-bearing strata, containing 22 valuable seams, as 
well as several very rich beds of ironstone ; there are only a few mines 
of any great depth, and a considerable portion of the district may be 
considered virgin ground. At the same time mining operations are 
being rapidly extended, so that between the years 1857-61, the quan- 
tity of coal raised had doubled itself, and in the latter year it reached 
2,372,500 tons. 
The shape of this coal-field is nearly triangular, with its apex to 
the north. Towards the south and west the coal measures dip at 
moderate angles under Permian and Triassic formations, which at no 
distant day will, in all probability, be invaded by collieries. The 
available supply of coal for future use is not less than 1,600 millions 
of tons, which is capable of sustaining the present drain for nearly 
700 years. 
The Cheadle coal-field is, separated from that of North Stafford- 
shire by a ridge of Millstone Grit, and contains only a few of the 
lower seams. In an economic point of view it is unimportant. 
South Staffordshire Coal-field—This coal-field is remarkable from 
the fact that it has been upheaved bodily through the Triassic rocks 
along two lines of dislocation which bound it on the east and west sides. 
Unlike that just described as in the freshness of youth, this may be con- 
sidered as having passed the meridian of its career, and as being on the 
verge of old age. Its extraordinary richness has been the principal 
cause of its early decline, and the treasures easily acquired have been 
often recklessly squandered. No district in Britain has been more 
favoured by nature in the richness of its stores of coal and iron, but 
unfortunately for their efficient and economical working, they have 
been placed too near the surface, and consequently have been mined 
by means of a vast number of small, ill-managed coal-pits, instead of on 
a well-regulated system of mining, such as is involved in the working 
of more extensive collieries. In some places the water from the old 
excavations has been allowed to accumulate to such a degree that 
large areas are hopelessly drowned out, and in others much of the 
coal has been wasted. At the same time this mineral wealth has 
given rise to the concentration of an enormous amount of manufac- 
turing industry, and the spectacle of blast-furnaces, foundries, coal 
and iron-pits, and houses interlaced by a network of canals, railways, 
and roads, which the “ black country” presents, is familiar to most of 
our readers. 
