THE LIMITS OF OUR COAL SUPPLY. 193 



interest in the work of stock-taking, a tedious process 

 which improvident people are too apt to skirk, but which 

 is quite indispensable to sound business proceedings, either 

 of individuals or nations. 



There are many discrepancies in the estimates that have 

 been made of the total available quantity of British coal. 

 The speculative nature of some of the data renders this 

 inevitable, but all authorities appear to agree on one point, 

 viz., that the amount of our supplies will not be determined 

 by the actual total quantity of coal under our feet, but by 

 the possibilities of reaching it. This is doubtless correct, 

 but how will these possibilities be limited, and what is the 

 extent or range of the limit? On both these points I ven- 

 ture to disagree with the eminent men who have so ably 

 discussed this question. First, as regards the nature of the 

 limit or barrier that will stop our further progress in coal- 

 getting. This is generally stated to be the depth of the 

 seams. The Eoyal Commissioners of 1870 based their 

 tables of the quantity of available coal in the visible and 

 concealed coal-fields upon the assumption that 4000 feet is 

 the limit of possible working. This limit is the same that 

 was taken by Mr. Hull ten years earlier. Mr. Hull, in the 

 last edition of " The Coal Fields of Great Britain," p. 326, 

 referring to Professor Eamsay's estimate, says, " These 

 estimates are drawn up for depths down to 4000 feet below 

 the surface, and even beyond this limit; but with this latter 

 quantity it is scarcely necessary that we should concern our- 

 selves." I shall presently show reasons for believing that 

 the time may ultimately arrive when we shall concern our- 

 selves with this deep coal, and actually get it; while, on the 

 other hand, that remote epoch will be preceded by another 

 period of practical approximate exhaustion of British coal 

 supply, which is likely to arrive long before we reach a 

 working depth of 4000 feet. 



The Eoyal Commissioners estimate that within the lim- 

 its of 4000 feet we have hundreds of square miles of attain- 

 able coal capable of yielding, after deducting 40 per cent 

 for loss in getting, etc., 146,480 millions of tons; or, if we 

 take this with Mr. Hull's deduction of one-twentieth for 

 seams under two feet in thickness, there remains 139,000 



