presidext's address. 337 



whole world ; further this total output of the world has 

 increased in six short years fi-oni 149,156 tons in 1879, to 211,613 

 in 1884. How can one wonder then at the rapid fall in price, 

 and decadence of our Copper Mining. I said last year that the 

 outlook was dark and dreary and the results since then have 

 more than justified so gloomy a prophecy, copper having 

 touched, since I addressed you then, a lower price than it ever 

 reached before. 



I would now, with your permission, allude briefly to another 

 Mineral production which, although, not a native of this county, 

 has a very great bearing on our mining industry. I mean Coctl^ 



As we are all aware, the mines of this county are supplied 

 with the fuel necessary for their working from South Wales, and 

 I would, in as abbreviated a form as practicable, call your 

 attention to that extensive Coal Basin, deeming that its 

 geographical disposition, extent and geological character, will 

 prove of interest to our members and the community at large. 



The total extent of the South Wales Coal Field is about 

 1,000 square miles, of which about 104 is situated in Monmouth- 

 shire, 518 in Glamorganshire, 74 in Brecknockshii-e, 228 in 

 Carmarthenshire, and 76 in Pembrokeshire. The greatest 

 length of the coal field is 90 miles, from Pontypool on the east, 

 to St. Brides Bay on the west ; the greatest breadth is in 

 Glamorganshire, were it measures about 21 miles. About 23 

 square miles of it is covered by the water of Swansea Bay, 

 about 135 square miles lie under the Estuary of the Loughor 

 River and Carmarthen Bay. 



So much for its disposition and extent, and now a few words 

 as to its geological position, but which I have no doubt is 

 familiar to most of my hearers. Underneath the so-called coal 

 measures or coal bearing strata is the " Farewell Rock," which 

 rests on the Millstone Grit (locally called "Plumpudding Stone" 

 from the supposed resemblance of this conglomerate to the 

 " Englishman's Sweetheart,") and which, in its turn, rests on 

 the Mountain Limestone and old Red Sandstone. To the west 

 of Swansea, the Millstone Grit is generally wanting, and the 

 Coal Measures lie directly on the Limestone ; and still further 

 west, this formation is wanting, and the measures lie upon the 

 Lower Silurian Rocks. 



