1864. | Hutt on the Coal Resources of Great Britain. 33 
The quantity of available coal yet remaining is, according to my 
own calculations, 24,000,000,000 tons. This is one-half the whole 
amount originally contained in the basin, a very large portion of which 
is at a depth below 4,000 and 5,000 feet. The produce of the 313 
collieries in 1861 was 6,690,771 tons, which is considerably lower than 
in previous years, probably from the falling off in the export trade 
owing to the American war, but even should the amount reach ten 
millions of tons, there is enough to last 2,400 years, or to supply the 
whole consumption of Great Britain for about 300 years,—a fact which 
one might suppose ought to set the mind of the public at rest on the 
subject of our coal-resources.* 
Cumberland Coal-field_—This being detached from any of the above 
groups, I have reserved for the last. It forms a small band stretching 
along the sea, from Whitehaven to Maryport, and has been worked from 
very ancient times, as we have documents showing that the seams had 
been followed under the sea as early as the beginning of the 18th cen- 
tury. The area of the coal-field is 25 square miles, and the quantity 
of coal remaining for use is about 90 millions of tons. 
The following summary of the above shall conclude this part of 
the subject. 
General Summary. + 
Group. square miles, fmillionsef tons, PFoduce, 1861. | “Catteries, 
Northen . . .| 1,920 25,300 | 11,081,000 424 
Fasten. . . . | 1,845 24,000 | 34,635,884 848 
Western). 5 535 7,094 25,643,000 1,158 
mouthem ... . 1,094 26,560 13,201,796 516 
Cumberland . . 25 90 1,255,644 28 
5,419 83,544 | 85,817,324 | 2,974 
The above figures being rendered into words, mean that there are 
in Great Britain, within a depth of 4,000 feet from the surface, 
83,544,000,000 of tons of coal available, and that this quantity divided 
by the quantity raised in 1861, say 86,000,000 of tons, would last for 
about 970 years. 
Having thus determined approximately the resources of our coal- 
fields, and making no pretensions to prophecy, it might be wise, perhaps, 
to close this article without venturing one word regarding the future. 
Nothing is more liable to error than prospective statistics ; the only 
person who is privileged to make use of them being the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer for the time being. At the same time, the falsifi- 
* The estimates of Mr. Vivian are much larger than my own; but I think 
he has fallen into the error of multiplying the average thickness of coal into the 
full area ; whereas the range of some seams is very far short of that. 
+ The produce and number of colleries are from the ‘ Mineral Statistics of 
Great Britain,’ for 1861, by R. Hunt, F.R.S., but differently arranged to suit the 
classification into groups here adopted. 
VOL. I, D 
