30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



the quantity of that invaluable mineral which haa been stored up throughout the 

 globe for our benefit is sufficient (if used discreetly) to serve the purposes of the 

 human race for many thousands of years. In fact, the entire quantity of coal 

 may be considered as practically inexhaustible. Turning, however, to our own 

 particular country, and contemplating the rate at which we are expending those 

 seams of coal which yield the best quality of fuel, and can be worked at the least 

 expense, we shall find much cause for anxiety. The greatness of England much 

 depends upon the superiority of her coal in cheapness and quality over that of 

 other nations ; but we have already drawn from our choicest mines a far larger 

 quantity of coal than has been raised in all other parts of the world put together, 

 and the time is not remote when we shall have to encounter the disadvantages of 

 increased cost of working and diminished value of produce. 



Estimates have been made at various periods of the time which would be 

 required to produce complete exhaustion of all the accessible coal in the British 

 Islands. These estimates are extremely discordant; but the discrepancies arise, 

 not from any important disagreement as to the available quantity of coal, but 

 from the enormous difference in the rate of consumption at the various dates 

 when the estimates were made, and also from the different views which have been 

 entertained as to the probable increase of consumption in future years. The 

 quantity of coal yearly worked from British mines has been almost trebled 

 during the last twenty years, and has probably increased tenfold since the com- 

 mencement of the present century ; but as this increase has taken place pending 

 the introduction of steam navigation and railway transit, and under exceptional 

 conditions of manufacturing development, it would be too much to assume that it 

 will continue to advance with equal rapidity. The statistics collected by Mr. 

 Hunt, of the Mining Records Office, show that at the end of 1861 the quantity of 

 coal raised in the United Kingdom had reached the enormous total of 86 millions 

 of tons, and that the average annual increase of the eight preceding years 

 amounted to 2f millions of tons. Let us inquire, then, what will be the duration 

 of our coal-fields if this more moderate rate of increase be maintained. 



By combining the known thickness of the various workable seams of coal, and 

 computing the area of the surface under which they lie, it is easy to arrive at an 

 estimate of the total quantity comprised in our coal-bearing strata. Assuming 

 4,000 feet as the greatest depth at which it will ever be possible to carry on 

 mining operations, and rejecting all seams of less than two feet in thickness, the 

 entire quantity of available coal existing in these islands has been calculated to 

 amount to about 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. It is clear that long before complete 

 exhaustion takes place, England will have ceased to be a coal-produciug country 

 on an extensive scale. Other nations, and especially the United States of Amer- 

 ica, which possess coal-fields thirty-seven times more extensive than ours, will 

 then be working more accessible beds at a smaller cost, and will be able to dis- 

 place the English coal from every market. The question is, not how long our 

 coal will endure before absolute exhaustion is effected, but how long will those 

 particular coal- sea ma last which yield coal of a quality and at a price to enable 



