140 Chronicles of Scvence. [ Jan. 
tions determine at what distance beyond the coast the greatest de- 
pression of the coal-beds will be found, we are completely at fault as 
to the quantity of coal lying underneath the sea. * * * * We have 
not yet reached the threshold of such a conjecture. We have not yet 
explored one square mile of this vast unknown space, or determined 
one of the many elements required in such an intricate and uncertain 
investigation.” To a certain extent, these remarks will apply with 
all their force to other localities. The difficulties determining the 
existence of coal, and its quantity, under several unexplored regions 
are exceedingly great, and until opened out, it could only be approxi- 
mately estimated. Still we cannot but think the concluding remark 
of the Reporters, that “such an investigation can be of no practical 
utility, and that the attempt for a vast period of time is, at the least, 
premature,’ is one induced, rather by the influences of commerce, 
looking only to the present, than by the broader spirit of philan- 
thropy which embraces the future. It may not be out of place here 
to caution the less scientific of our readers from receiving, as in any 
way probable, that speculation which is echoed from book to book 
promising man that science will find, when coal is exhausted, some 
other source of heat and light, which shall be equally economical and 
as easy of application. If those speculative minds, who suppose the 
time will come when the constituents of water will be burnt, or elec- 
tricity be made an unfailing producer of heat, would but carefully 
entertain the fact, that every form of physical force is the result of 
the destruction (change of form) of matter somewhere, they would be 
more cautious in promulgating their unsupported hypotheses. To 
burn zinc or iron in a voltaic battery to produce heat or light, must 
always be infinitely more costly than burning coal in a furnace. 
The lamentable catastrophes which from time to time occur in our 
collieries, awaken public attention, and excite the utmost sympathy 
for the sorrowing survivors. That there is a deep-felt desire to 
assuage the flood of misery which falls, tempest-like, upon a colliery 
village ; and so far to improve the conditions under which the coal- 
miner labours, as to render the risks less imminent to him, is proved 
by the manner in which money was poured into the Hartley Fund. 
After some delay, the large sum whch remained unexpended, after 
every necessary want had been satisfied amongst the widows and 
orphans of those poor men who perished so miserably in that Colliery, 
has been distributed to other districts for the purpose of forming the 
nucleus of local funds to meet such exigencies as may unhappily arise. 
The public expression of feeling is loud, it will be heard and attended 
to; but, independently of the impulse which is due to this voice, 
it must not be forgotten that numerous minds are, and have been 
silently and earnestly at work, aiming to improve all the conditions of 
our collieries, and so to render accidents less common. 
We have lately, at the Morfa Colliery, in South Wales, had an 
explosion of fire-damp, by which 39 men were destroyed. This 
serious accident occurred in a colliery remarkable for its very excel- 
lent arrangements. The works were carried on under the most skilled 
colliery engineers ; the ventilation was excellent ; locked safety-lamps 
