534 Reviews — Yeats' s Natural History of Commerce. 



To the fact that Great Britain presents in its rock-groups an 

 epitome of the geological structure of Europe, if not of the known- 

 world itself, must be attributed a large share of the pre-eminence we 

 enjoy as a nation. 



Our insular position happily shuts us out from the danger of in- 

 vasion by land, whilst our fleet securely guards our coasts from 

 hostile navies ; but we could offer, at the present day, but a poor 

 lesistance to the invader if we did not possess those two great 

 essentials to national success, coal and iron. " Great Britain 

 possesses a rich supply of minerals ; we have gold, silver, copper, 

 lead, tin, zinc, antimony, nickel, cobalt, bismuth, uranium, chromium, 

 and other of the rare metals, besides vast stores of iron ; our coal- 

 beds are enormous ; and earthy minerals are in great variety and 

 value. Statistics show that in Great Britain 350,000 persons are 

 actually engaged in mining operations, exclusive of quarries of all 

 kinds, and that the produce is of the minimum value of £40.000,000." 



In illustration of England's mineral activity, take the one item of 

 coal. We quote from p. 371, "The annual produce of the principal 

 coal districts of the globe, according to the latest returns, may be 

 stated as follows : — 



TONS. 



Britain 101,620,000 



Zollverein (with lignite) ... 25,000,000 



United States 16,472,000 



France 11,000,000 



Belgium 4,000,000 



Austria 2,270,000 



TONS. 



Spain 400,000 



Sweden 230,000 



India 370,000 



Australia 450,000 



China 100,000 



Nova Scotia., 651,300." 



We see not only the effect of Geology upon our navies, turning our 

 "hearts of oak" into "ironsides," — trusting to coal and steam instead 

 of canvas and ^olus to plough the deep, — but the presence of coal 

 underground has decided the position of our staple manufactures, 

 and we see Norwich, York, and Spitalfields compelled to resign the 

 competition with Lancashire, owing to its situation with respect to our 

 coal-fields. For the same reason the iron of the Weald of Kent and 

 Sussex, so valuable, as long as wood was used as the fuel for smelt- 

 ing the ore, is now worthless, because richer beds have been found 

 in the centre, the West and the North of England, in close prox- 

 imity to Coal. Thus we see : — 



" The old order changeth, yielding place to new." 

 But in the foregoing enumeration we by no means exhaust the 

 geological advantages of this island-home of ours. " Other bedded 

 mineral products are met with in strata of various ages. Slates are 

 quarried in Silurian rocks in Caernarvon and Merioneth, in Cumber- 

 land, and in some parts of Scotland. In these districts there is a 

 very large population supported entirely by the quarrying and pre- 

 paring of slates. Rock-salt is confined in Great Britain to the 

 Keuper Sandstones and Marls. Building and architectural stones 

 are chiefly quarried in the Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, and 

 Oolitic strata." (p. 31.) The coprolite-workings are also referred 

 to, as an important branch of industry, and as furnishing the farmer 



