Minerals and Mines. 35 



with modern coal workings, were no great depth, the collier's 

 life was at the mercy of innumerable unforeseen accidents, 

 which are now warded off by patent safety lamps, mines' pro- 

 tection legislation, and chemical science. 



This same writer gives us an insight into the machinery 

 employed for the carriage of the combustible from the northern 

 coal beds to marketable centres. We read of "the Conveniency 

 of the Navigable River," of the privileges of the Fitters' Com- 

 pany, and the various duties charged on each chaldron of 

 coal sent out. For example, no owner of coals was allowed 

 " to load his ship with his own commodity," but it must be 

 done by a member of the Company of Fitters,^ to whom six- 

 pence was allowed for every Newcastle chaldron (twice the size 

 of the same London measure) that went out. The town 

 claimed as duty another three-pence, and the king's custom 

 house twelve-pence more. Our author alludes to the Lanca- 

 shii'e coal industry, especially emphasising the cannel coal 

 of the Wigan district, as the choicest in England; and its 

 early popularity as a market commodity is evidenced by 

 Arthur Young's famous description of the traffic-damaged 

 roads in this neighbourhood. Our author does not omit to 

 mention, though in the briefest way, the coal and iron 

 mines in the south of Staffordshire and parts of Shropshire, 

 the silver mines of Cornwall, Lancashire, and Durham, the 

 iron works of Sussex, the copper and tin veins of Cornwall, 

 and the lead industry of Derbyshire. Describing the last 

 named, he alludes to Wirks worth as the biggest lead mart in 

 the kingdom. The processes for smelting this ore, though 

 still of the rudest description, had made some progress since 

 the Roman times, when the bole was merely a pile of loose 

 stones on which were strewn wooden piles. These, when ignited, 

 obtained the necessary smelting heat by means of the moun- 

 tain breezes. Bellows had since then been introduced, which 

 were of so unwieldy a size as to require horse-power. But, at 

 the period we are now dealing with, air-engines had been in- 

 vented, which were kept in motion by the application of water 



^ The fitters were middle men between the undertaker, i.e. colliery- 

 lessee, and the merchant. 



