138] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



other coals, do ; but being stronger in texture, and not so apt 

 to break, this quality is not requisite. It kindles more readily, 

 and makes a pleasanter fire, requires less trouble in the ma- 

 nagement, and makes less dust then the caking coals, and is 

 preferred for chamber-fires. It is also a good coal for all kinds of 

 metallic processes. 



Of the different beds of the main coal, the upper bed, called 

 roof-floor, is generally left to support the earth or clunch above it 

 from falling. The second bed, called top-slipper, and the third 

 and fourth beds, which together are called the white coal, are 

 reckoned the best for chamber-fires. Next to them in goodness 

 are reckoned the eleventh and twelfth beds, called sawyer and 

 slipper; after them come the eighth, ninth, and tenth, called foot- 

 coal, john-coal, and stone-coal. The tows and benches are prefer- 

 red for making coaks, and are generally reserved for the furnaces; 

 they do not kindle and flame so vividly as the foregoing measures, 

 but they give a more durable and stronger heat. The part of the 

 brassil measure, which contains pyrites, is generally laid aside, or 

 used for burning bricks or lime ; the humphreys being the lowest 

 measure, is cut away to let those above it fall down, and therefore 

 most of it is reduced to small coal or slack. 



The same beds of coal, however, vary in quality in different fields, 

 or in parts of the same field. In general the collieries on the east 

 side of the Dudley and Rowley-hills, yield better coal than those 

 on the opposite side. The coal is liable to variations and acciden- 

 tal defects, and some is black without lustre, others appear broken 

 or crushed, and some very bright and shining, burns with little or 

 no flame. 



In getting of this coal, in order to support excavations ten 

 yards high, it is necessary to leave very large pillars of coal, eight 

 or ten yards diameter. When the pits are sunk, and communica- 

 tion made with the engine-pit for the water to go off, and roads 

 made for the conveyance of coal to the shaft of the pit, the colliers 

 begin to get coal by working a stall. They first cut out the lower 

 bed called the humphreys the length of their stall, ten, twelve, or 

 fourteen yards ; and when they have thus removed the foundation 

 to a certain breadth, they loosen its adhesion to the sides by cut- 

 ting as high as the beds called slipper and sawyer, which makes 

 the first fall of coals, the stone-coal makes the second fall, the 

 john-coal or slips makes the third, the foot-coal makes the fourth, 

 the brassil makes the fifth, the benches and tow-coal make the 



