322 Reports to the Bristol and Taunton Canal Companiff 



veins of coal, which cannot fail to make the collieries esta- 

 blished on them, of long duration. The veins are of suffii- 

 cient thickness to produce a great quantity of coal, without 

 going over much ground. There are also a sufficient num- 

 ber of veins lying one beneath another, within a moderate 

 depth from the surface, so as not to require the too frequent 

 repetition of the great expense of new pits and machinery. 

 The veins also lie so motierately inclined, as to be for a 

 long period of years within the reach, of such shafts as may 

 be sunk, by the help of steam-engines, which, from the 

 small quantity of water, in a great extent of coal already 

 working, have not yet been found necessary. As the sink- 

 ings through the strata lying over these veins of coal are 

 all soft and mostly impervious to water, it may be reason- 

 ably expected that the veins which lie under these will 

 have still less water. 



The surface of the land, to a great extent around these 

 collieries, (atBlackwell Common) is a tenacious clay, quite 

 unabsorbent, and altogether unlike the land at Nailsea: and 

 although the veins are thinner, there are more of them, and 

 the coal is of a harder and better quality. The disadvan- 

 tages which these works have experienced, from the <juan- 

 tity of timber required, will lessen with the depth to which 

 the veins are worked, and the expense of procuring such 

 timber will be lessened by making the canal. Although 

 these veins of coal have been worked for a long time, the 

 works have been carried on in such a small way, as not mate- 

 riallv to have reduced the quantity of coal, or to render the 

 working of the deep coal anywise dangerous, from water 

 contained in the old hollows. The whole of the water be- 

 tween the nits and the outcrops is known, and daily ex- 

 hausted, without the aid of pumps, and, in fact, all the coal 

 thai has ever been worked out of these veins, ha? been merely 

 along the outcrops ; and instead of eMhausling the veins, or 

 of rendering the deep works dansjerous, they have most sa- 

 tisfaclurliv proved the great extent to which such works 

 may be carried. 



These veins hppear to underlay the Nailsea veins; and it 

 is highly probable that other veins between them remain 

 undiscovered. At these pits, (Mr. Walters's and Mr. 

 White's) there are large stacks of good coals on hand: if 

 these works in their present state are capable of thus over- 

 stocking the sale, there can be no doubt of what they will 

 produce, when all of them are in full working. Besides 

 the pit which is now working at Nailsea, there is aiiother 

 awrly down to coal, and old ones arc kept open, which may 



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