76 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



the case as he viewed it. 'The entire quantity of 

 available coal existing in these islands has been cal- 

 culated to amount to 80,000 millions of tons, which, at 

 the present rate of consumption, would be exhausted 

 in 930 years ; but with a continued yearly increase of 

 2f millions of tons would only last 212 years.' 



Other statements were not wanting, however, which 

 presented matters in a more favourable light. Mr. 

 Hussey Vivian, M.P., expressed the opinion that South 

 Wales alone could supply all England with coals for 

 500 years. Mr. E. C. Taylor, of the Geological Society, 

 said that our coal stores would suffice for 1,700 years. 

 And there were some who adopted a yet more sanguine 

 view of our position. 



On the other hand, Mr. Edward Hull, of the 

 Geological Survey, calculated that with an increase of 

 but one million and a half of tons per annum con 

 siderably less than even the average increase for the 

 preceding decade l our coals would last us but a little 

 more than 300 years. Mr. Stanley Jevons, in his 

 masterly treatise on 'The Coal Question,' adopted a 

 mode of considering the increase, which has led to an 

 even more unpleasant conclusion than any hitherto 

 obtained. He observed that the quantity of coal raised 

 in successive years is not merely increasing, but the 

 amount of increase is itself increasing. We, of course, 

 regard not,' he said, ' the average annual arithmetical 



1 In 1854, the yield was 64,661,401 tons ; in 1864, the yield was 

 92,787,873 : the average increase per annum was, therefore, no less 

 than 2,812,647 tons. 



