348 B. Jones — Coal-measures of the Broivn Clee Hill. 



IV. — On the Cakboniferous Deposit of the Bkown Clee 



Hill and its Eelation to Contiguous Coal-fields. 



By D. Jones, F.G.S. 



THE Coal-measures of the Brown Clee are of themselves ex- 

 tremely insignificant and unimportant. The total area is 

 limited, and the thickness of the coals would not have entitled them 

 to be considered of commercial value, if it were not for the fact, that 

 from its elevated position it is placed well above the reach of water, 

 and hence the great difficulties which beset early mining operations 

 in freeing the mines from water did not affect the coal-mines of the 

 Brown Clee ; consequently, in those times they were worked to 

 advantage, but there is very little coal remaining to be won. 

 They have, however, a value to the geologist, as indicative of the 

 much wider range of the Coalbrookdale Coal-measures than is 

 shown by its present boundary, for there is an unmistakable analogy 

 between both deposits, to which we shall presently refer.^ 



We are now at an elevation of 1730 feet above the level of the 

 sea, upon the summit of a hill, which is surmounted with a capping 

 of Jew-stone, and beneath it a patch of Coal-measures not exceeding 

 a total thickness of 110 feet. Beneath that we have Millstone Grit, 

 which, it has been stated, is 200 feet thick, but in my opinion is 

 considerably less, and the Geological Survey have omitted to show 

 that there is any whatever. 



Below that we get the whole base of the hill, consisting of Old 

 Eed Sandstone. This capping of Coal-measures is divided into two 

 patches, occupying the two points of the hill known as Clee Burf 

 and Abdon Burf. 



The presence of the Jew-stone, which is an igneous rock, at once 

 gives us a clue to the cause of the singular elevation of these coal 

 patches ; and not only so, but explains to us how they have escaped 

 the denudation which has overtaken a very large area of Coal- 

 measures that once laid in a sheet around this site, the Jew-stone 

 having acted from its hard and obdurate nature as a protector and 

 breakwater against the incursion of the denuding waves. 



Immediately below this igneous rock we have a coal which is called 

 the " Jew-stone Black Coal," which, with the intervening partings, 

 measures about 4 feet. At 13 feet below this is found the Three- 

 quarter Coal, measuring 2ft. 3in., and I should not forget to men- 

 tion that between these two coals is a substance called by the 

 miners " Black Bessy's Eyes," no doubt in honour of some belle in 

 the miners' village long ago. 



Beneath the Three-quarter Coal, at a distance of 7ft. 9in., lies the 

 " Batty Coal," which, with coal and partings, measures 5ft. 3in. At 

 63 feet below this we find the "Bottom Coal," 2ft. 4in. thick, 

 which sometimes rests upon the Millstone Grit, but more frequently 

 has a few feet of Coal-measure intervening. 



ISIot far above the Bottom Coal lies the Ironstone, which was 



^ Further details relating to these Coal-measures are given in a paper by Mr. D . 

 Jones, published in the Geol. Mag., Vol. VIII. p. 200. 



