1864. | Introduction. vi 
grate, and an easy method of firing, would not only economize its 
consumption to an almost incredible degree, but that the inhabitants 
of cities would be spared the annoyance and inconvenience of a 
vitiated atmosphere. Even in our present fireplaces, he tells us, we 
consume five times as much coal as would be requisite in a properly 
constructed stove or improved open fireplaces. 
As regards the substitution of stoves for firesides, we suspect that 
our countrymen would rather dispense with coal altogether and return 
to the days of wood and turf, than allow such an innovation ; but, as 
we shall have occasion to show hereafter, striking improvements are 
being introduced into the construction of land and marine engines, 
which herald a constantly increasing economy in the consumption of 
coal. 
It would appear, however, from the opinions expressed by ex- 
perienced practical geologists, that it is difficult at present to estimate 
even the exact area of our English coal-beds, and it is believed that 
the fields now worked will yield a sufficient supply of fuel to last 
nearly a thousand years.* 
Leaving this subject, we have now to observe that the exploration 
of one new field has already produced results almost as startling, and 
certainly not less useful than the speculations of Sir William Arm- 
strong. In sinking a shaft at Middlesborough, for the purpose of ob- 
taining a supply of fresh water, Messrs. Bolckow and Vaughan, the 
enterprising pioneers of the coal and iron trade in that district, were 
so fortunate as to discover at a depth of twelve hundred and six feet, 
in the Trias, or New Red Sandstone formation, a deposit of rock salt, 
which, in August last, had been penetrated to the depth of nearly 
one hundred feet, without its lowest limit having been reached ; and 
the brine, which was found to contain ninety-six per cent. of chloride 
of sodium, has been pronounced by an experienced chemist to be purer 
than that of Cheshire. 
It is almost impossible for persons unacquainted with the mineral 
and manufacturing districts of Northumberland to form any concep- 
tion of the importance of this discovery. 
Hitherto, the soda manufacture of the Tyne has been entirely 
dependent for its supply of salt (from which the various preparations 
of soda are manufactured) upon the brine-springs of Cheshire and 
Worcestershire, and from these two counties at least one hundred 
thousand tons of salt have been conveyed annually, at a cost, in some 
cases, far exceeding the value at the works, of the mineral itself. 
Should the Cleveland salt-beds prove productive, the Newcastle soda 
* For further information on this topic, we refer our readers to an article in 
the present number, on the “ Coal Resources of Great Britain,’ by Mr. E. Hull. 
