COAL. 179 



very variable in quality) is fitted for some special pur- 

 pose domestic fuel, steam-raising, gas-making, oil-making, 

 or metallurgy. For these and kindred purposes about 

 100,000,000 tons are now annually raised from British, 

 coal-fields ; and when we reflect on the necessity for fuel 

 in our northern climate, on the advantages of a cheap and 

 convenient light like gas, on the importance of our manu- 

 facturing machinery which is moved by steam-power, and 

 on the impulse which steam has given to our intercommu- 

 nication by land and sea, it is impossible to over-estimate 

 the importance of this single mineral In young and 

 newly-settled countries the forests may supply its place; 

 but as population increases, as the land must be cleared for 

 grain crops, and as the forest-growth necessarily disappears, 

 coal is yet the only available source of heat, and happy 

 the nation that possesses it in accessible abundance ! To 

 Britain it is all-important ; and when we consider the 

 amount of capital, skill, and industry employed in procuring 

 it, the myriad economical purposes to which it is applied, 

 the facility with which it can be carried, and the safety 

 and readiness with which it can be used, we may well 

 wonder what would have been the condition of our country 

 without it. This, then, we owe to our Coal-fields ; and 

 considering the enormous amount raised from so small an 

 area, the rapidly increasing demand, and the undoubted 

 limits of the supply, everything that tends to facilitate its 

 full and careful extraction or economise its use should be 

 hailed as a boon of no common importance. 



We have alluded to the enormous amount of coal raised 

 from so small an area, and the aggregate of the coal-fields of 

 Britain, though large in comparison with what is possessed 

 by other European countries, does not greatly exceed 5000 

 square miles. Even in this area much of the coal is of inferior 

 quality, much is also unworkable, and a considerable amount 



