UNCLE IN ENGLAND, 175 



3rd. My uncle mentioned yesterday, that in 

 returning a few years ago from Berwick upon 

 Tweed,, he was much surprised, as night came 

 on, at seeing two immense fires near Newcastle. 

 Upon inquiring, he found that they were the 

 small coal which does not readily sell, and is 

 therefore separated by screens from the larger 

 blocks. Prodigious heaps are thus formed at 

 the mouths of the pits ; and from the decom- 

 position of the pyrites, they take fire, and con- 

 tinue to burn for years. One of these huge 

 mounds was but a few miles from the road ; it 

 was said to cover twelve acres of ground, and to 

 have been burning for eight years. 



As all that small coal might be made use of to 

 produce coal gas, he says the legislature should 

 interfere to prevent such a shameful waste, for 

 not less than one hundred thousand chaldrons 

 are thus annually destroyed on the banks of the 

 River Tyrie ; and nearly the same quantity on 

 the Wear. Beneath these burning heaps, he 

 found a bed of blackish scoria, which resembles 

 basalt, and which is used for mending the roads. 



To the west of Dudley, in the great Stafford- 

 shire coal district, my uncle says that some of 

 the collieries took fire spontaneously many years 

 ago. The subterraneous conflagration spread 

 to a great extent, and produced some singular 

 effects ; smoke and steam were seen to rise from 



