404 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I/IQ. 



The different veins of coal and earth, in the coal-works in these parts, all 

 agree in the oblique situation of the veins ; and every vein has its cliff or clives 

 lying over it, in the same oblique manner. They all pitch or rise about 22 

 inches in a fathom, and almost all have the same strata of earth, malm, and 

 rock over them, but differ in respect to their course or drift, as also in thick- 

 ness, goodness, and use. 



Now as coal is here generally dug in valleys, so the hills, which interfere 

 between the several works, seem also to observe a regular course in the strata 

 of stone and earth found in their bowels : for in these hills, we find on the 

 summits a stony arable, mixed with a spongy yellowish earth and clay : under 

 which are quarries of lyas, in several beds, to about 8 or 1 feet deep ; and 6 

 feet under that, through yellowish loom, is a blue clay, inclinable to marie, 

 which is about a yard thick : under this is another yard of whitish loom ; and 

 then a deep blue marie, soft, fat, and soapy, 6 feet thick ; only at about 2 

 feet thick, it is parted by a marchasite about 6 inches thick. But I must defer 

 the farther description of these, and some lead-mines, to another opportunity ; 

 only it is to be noted, that these beds of stone and marie, different from coal, 

 lie all horizontal. 



Some Instances of the very great and speedy Vegetation of Turnips. By the 

 Rev. Dr. J. Theoph. Desaguliers, F. R. S. N° 36o, p. 974. 



At Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire, a peaty ground near a pool, of which 

 it was formerly a part, was sowed with turnip-seed on the 2d of July, 1702. 

 In less than 3 days time the turnips were seen above ground. In 3 weeks the 

 roots were as large as walnuts. In less than 5 weeks after the sowing, the 

 , gardener drew great quantities of turnips to sell, being as large as great apples. 

 At the end of 6 weeks, viz. on the 12th of August, a large turnip was taken 

 up, which, together with its top and long descending part of the root, weighed 

 above 2 lb. 14 oz. At the same time also was weighed 1 oz. of the same sort 

 of turnip-seed; and afterwards 1000 of the grains were counted singly out of 

 the ounce so weighed, and the rest of the ounce was divided into heaps, as near 

 as could be guessed, equal to the 1000 seeds first severed and laid together; 

 and it was found that the whole ounce contained above 14600 single grains; 

 which number multiplied by 46, the number of ounces that the turnip weighed, 

 produces 6/1,600, viz. the number of single grains of seed required to equal 

 the weight of the turnip. From whence may be gathered that, on supposition 

 that the increase of the turnip was all along uniform and equal, from the time 

 it was sowed, the grain of seed which it sprung from, weighing when it was 



