484 Horace B. Woodivard — A Ramble Across the Mendips. 



out, so tliey have to continue supporting the roof by stout blocks of 

 wood, lest the whole series above should give way. As we went 

 further into the mine, passages branched out in all directions, so that 

 a stranger might easily lose himself in it ; the way got still 

 shallower, and we had to stoop more ; " heads " was frequently 

 called, as a thick beam projected from the roof, and we had to bend 

 down very low ; ponies were employed, as horses could not enter, 

 and the poor animals got many a knock on the head, and grazed 

 their backs, which all the time had a ■' close shave " with the roof. 

 At last we got to the place where the men were at work, and we 

 had to crawl into a hole to see them. They were lying on their 

 sides, not too profusely clothed, and pecked away at the coal, which 

 was shovelled into a truck by another man, and drawn away by a 

 pony in charge of a boy. The men carried their candles in little 

 tin holders attached to their caps. After all, there is very little to 

 be seen in a coal-mine, there is so much coal-dust concealing and 

 coating evei"y thing ; while the closeness of the atmosphere, and 

 having to stoop the greater part of the time, render the change, 

 when you reach the exterior and are in fresh air again, a truly 

 grateful one. 



The veins worked at Eadstock are very thin, the thickest being 

 two feet four inches ; to the south in the Vobster series there is a 

 vein of shaly coal eight feet in thickness ; these are very small 

 compared to the seams in the North of England, where in the 

 Dudley Coal-field there is one thirty feet in thickness ! The coal is 

 mostly adapted for household purposes, and is largely burnt in the 

 Western Counties, but it is not very first-rate, as it leaves a great 

 deal of ash. 



Although the Eadstock Mines are free from fire-damp, this is not 

 the case with some at Newbury, Vobster, and Edford, nearer to the 

 Mendips, where the seams are much disturbed. Some fiery veins 

 occur at these places, and some explosions have taken place, so that 

 it is necessary to use the Davy lamp. The depth of the mines 

 varies ; that at Braysdown near Eadstock, 580 yards, is the deepest. 



If you spend a short time in examining the heaps of shale thrown 

 out from the mines, you may find many ferns and other plant- 

 remains for which the Eadstock district is noted, particularly those 

 called Pecopteris, Neuropteris, Calamites, Lepidodendron, Sigillarici, 

 and Aster ophyllites, also perhaps a few bivalved Mollusca or Crus- 

 tacea, which toll us of the life which existed during the Coal-period. 

 We must go a very long way back in time to restore the phj^sical 

 geography of the area during the formation of the coal. We must 

 picture part of a land-locked sea iiito which several rivers flowed, 

 bringing sedimentary matter, sand and mud, and depositing it at the 

 sea-bottom. The water could not be very deep, for soon either the 

 increase of sediment or a slight elevation produced a land area upon 

 which grew a luxuriant vegetation, which in process of time was 

 submerged, and covered up by fresh sedimentary material. This 

 buried mass of vegetation is now our coal.' The coal occurs 

 in seams, alternating with shale, clay, and sandstone, showing 



