DURHAM. 



203 



Durham, and great weight. The celebrated Durham ox was 

 > "Y"*' bred by Mr Charles Collins of Kellon, in the year 1796. 

 His form in every respect was nearly perfect ; and as 

 he shewed an early disposition to take on fat, great at- 

 tention was paid to him. At five years old he was 

 deemed so surprising an animal, that he was purchased 

 to be exhibited as a show for L. 140, and soon after- 

 wards L. 2000 were offered for him. He was killed 

 in 1807; and, notwithstanding his being carried so 

 much about for exhibition, yet he weighed upwards of 

 186 stone, 14 Ib. to the stone. The lower parts of this 

 county were formerly remarkable for their large breed 

 of sheep : They were, indeed, the largest in the king- 

 dom, many of them weighing from 50 Ib. to 60 Ib. the 

 quarter. Some of them were nearly the height of a 

 Shetland poney. But these sheep fell out of repute, 

 when the Tees water farmers (who are the principal 

 and most intelligent graziers in the county) turned 

 their attention to Mr Bakewell's breed, which is now 

 the prevailing and favourite one in this part of the 

 county. Besides these, however, there are heath sheep, 

 which are distinguished by their black and mottled 

 faces, black legs, and coarse wool. They are mostly 

 found in the western district, on the borders of the 

 moors. Their wool is long and coarse ; the average 

 weight of it about 4 Ib. In the south-east part of Dur- 

 ham, as well as in the opposite district of Yorkshire, 

 a breed of horses has long been famous, known by the 

 name of Cleveland bays. They are supposed to be the 

 original stock, from which the old English coach horse, 

 >tronger hunters, and road horses sprung. They are 

 remarkably good draught horses. Their form is very 

 compact ; their legs short and sinewy ; and they are 

 remarkably strong and active, frequently going sixty or 

 seventy miles for coals or lime in twenty- tour hours. 

 The botany of Durham affords several rare and beau- 



Botany. 



lincralo- 



tiful plants, among which the barnet rose and the gen- 

 liana verna may be particularly enumerated. They are 

 both met with in the neighbourhood of Winch Bridge. 

 The latter, till it was discovered here, was not known to 

 exist in Great Britain. But this county is more interest- 

 ing to the mineralogist than to the botanist, as its mines 

 are very numerous and valuable. 



The mineralogical districts are pretty well distinguish- 

 ed. In entering the county from the west, we immediate- 

 ly meet with the lead district, which stretches the whole 

 breadth of it in this part, and extends to the east, as far as 

 a line drawn from Allaresford nearly to Barnard Castle. 

 When we pass thisline, we enter on the co:d district, which 

 is more irregular in its form. Interposed between it 

 and the sea, at least from Mornington a little to the 

 north of Whitburn, is the principal limestone district. 

 There are also other limestone districts : On entering 

 the county from the south, at Fierce-bridge, we meet 

 with it. Another lies farther north, on the ridge ex- 

 tending from Houghton to Aykley. Limestone is also 

 found in the lead mine district. 



The coal district occupies a space of twenty-two 

 miles in length, and eleven and a half in breadth, and 

 contains about 160,000 acres. The collieries are divi- 

 ded into "water sale" and "land sale:" the former 

 occupy about one-third, the latter two-thirds of the 

 district. As, however, there are several ports in which 

 no .coal is found, or at least where it is either thrown out 

 by dikes, or lies so low as not to be workable, the actual 

 district of workable coals cannot be estimated to occupy 

 more than 100,000 acres. The strata are very various 

 in thickness, and in the quality of the coal. The land 

 sale collieries lie in the south and western parts of the 

 5 



district, the water sale in the northern parts. It is cal- Durliau-,. 

 culated, that in the water sale collieries 1,333,000 dial- v "Y"^ 

 drons are wrought annually, which employ 701 1 men ; 

 and that in the land sale collieries 147,080 chaldrons 

 are wrought, which employ 382. The kreelmen em- 

 ployed on the two rivers of Tyne and the Wear are 

 3257 ; so that the total number of chaldrons are 

 1,480,080, and the number of men employed is 10,650. 

 It is calculated, that if the seamen who navigate the 

 colliers which sail from Sunderland are taken into the 

 account, the number of men employed in the coal 

 trade on the river Wear are 15,000; and their fa- 

 mine's being computed at 11,000, there will thus be 

 26,000 persons supported by the coal works. As each 

 chaldron of coals weighs 28 cwt. and a cubic yard of 

 coal weighs a ton, there are 1,866,200 cubic yards 

 wrought yearly for exportation, which occupy 112 

 acres. The average thickness of the workable seams is 

 about five yards. The strata seldom lie horizontally, 

 but generally at a small angle; and whatever the angle 

 of inclination in one seam may be, let there be ever so 

 many, they have all the same inclination. The fall 

 dip is generally in a south-westerly direction. The 

 dikes are divided into up-cast dikes and down-cast 

 dikes, as the strata are cast up or down. The gut 

 of the dikes is mostly filled with clay. The most re- 

 markable dike is the whinstone dike, upon Cockfield 

 fall : it runs nearly in a south-easterly direction : it is 

 a " down-cast" to the north, of three fathoms. The 

 breadth is seventeen yards, which is occupied by whin- 

 stone, that appears to have been in a state of fusion 

 when it filled up the fracture. This is inferred from 

 the appearance and nature of the coal, to the distance 

 of some feet on each side of it, which is turned into a 

 sooty substance, and becomes cinder as the distance 

 from the whinstone increases. By degrees, however, 

 it assumes the natural appearance of coal, and possesses 

 all its properties. This takes place completely at about 

 fifty yards from the whinstone. Considerable quanti- 

 ties of ore of sulphur, of a beautiful bright yellow co- 

 lour, and of an angular form, is found on the under 

 surface of the stratum, lying on that part of the seam 

 which is converted into cinder. The cinder burns 

 clear, without smoke, and affords a durable heat. In a 

 dike somewhat similar to this, near Durham, some small 

 quantities of lead ore have been found. The coals are 

 brought out of the pits on machines drawn by steam ; 

 and from the pits to the water on waggons, which run 

 on iron railways. It may not be improper here to no- 

 tice an ingenious contrivance by the late Mr George 

 Dixon of Cockfield, in this county, for conveying coals, 

 or other bodies of nearly the same specific gravity, by 

 water without boats : " The specific gravity of coals 

 not being much greater than water, he calculated the 

 declivity necessary to give water a sufficient force to 

 overcome the excess of weight that an equal bulk oi 

 coals hud over an equal bulk of water, and had a cut 

 made upon Cockfield Fell, about four feet wide at top, 

 and three feet deep, with such an inclination as to give 

 the water the necessary velocity. When a cart load of 

 coals was put into it, they swam, or were carried gen- 

 tly by the water into a reservoir, or standing jiool, at 

 the lower end, and deposited in proper vessels, to be 

 drawn out as they were filled." 



Lead appears to have been wrought in this county at Lead minef* 

 a very early period. In the neighbourhood of Eggles- 

 ton, in Teesdale, there are lead mines which have been 

 wrought from the time of Edward VI. Various an- 

 cient workings have also been traced here, which, by 



