18)4.] Northumlerland, Durham, &c. 339 



old red sandstone, wh h constitutes so great a portion of tlic 

 surface of Westmorland and Cumberland, and which extends as far 

 south as the town of Manchester ; part of which, as may be seen 

 distinctly on the banks of the river that separates Manchester from 

 Salford, is built on this rock. From this position of the beds, and 

 from the numerous veins containing lead ore which traverse 

 in different directions, and which have been wrought to a consii 

 able extent for many years, all the different be this 



formation have been reckoned ; and their position, ii: and 



nature, ascertained with much precision. They amount (confound- 

 ing together several insignificant beds composed nearly of the same 

 materials) to \4J, constituting a thickness (supposing them all 

 above each other, as is the case at the east side of the counties,) of 

 459 fathoms, and consisting of four different kinds of mineral, 

 which alternate with each other a number of times : these are coal, 

 lime-stone, slate-clay, and sandstone. 



1. 1 do not know exactly how many beds of coal exist in this forma- 

 tion ; but the best information I could procure makes them amount 

 to seven, none of which exceeds three or four feet in thickness.* 

 The coal is usually slate-coal, similar to the Scotch, Welsh, or 

 Staffordshire coal, and docs not cake. The lowest bed of all, which 

 crops out near Crossfell, is called crow-coal by the country 

 people. It falls to powder when exposed to the air, and cannot be 

 burnt by itself; but the common people make it up into balls with 

 clay, and use it for fuel. This fact refutes a vulgar notion, which 

 I have heard repeated by various persons, that the goodness of 

 Newcastle coal is owing to its depth ; for this bed of crow-coal lies 

 387 fathoms below the lowest of the Newcastle beds, and must 

 therefore have been deposited long before them. None of tiie coals 

 raised from the Independent Coal Formation in Northumberland 

 and Durham are carried to London, or indeed sent to sea. They 

 are all employed for the home consumption of the counties. They 

 are considered as inferior in quality to the Newcastle coal. 



2. There are 19 beds of lime-stone, situated at a considerable dis- 

 tance below each other, and varying very much from each other in 

 thickness ; some not exceeding the thickness of three feet, while 

 others amount to more than 10 or 12 fathoms. This lime-Stone is 

 usually hard, has a blue colour, and is not the least crystalline in 

 its texture. In general it is destitute of petrifactions ; hut there arc 

 two of the beds which constitute an exception to this rule. The. 

 first is a lime-stone, so hard as to take a polish. It is epiite filled 

 with madrepores. Unluckily I neglected to note down upon the 

 spot the name of this bed ; hut, unless my memory deceives me, 

 it is called Tyne Bottom Lime-stone ; because it tonus the bottom 

 of the south Tyne, near Alstone. If this be the name of the bed, 



• Tin- oveneen of the co^Uninei in theae couotiei are very different in ibeir 

 brluiTiuur from (lie agents of (In- Irail-mii N, The 



neat. Hence one Ii afraid to depend upon the Information which they comnra- 



ii i c ale. 



V '2 



