102 Mr. F. Forster's Observalions on the South Welsh Coal Basin. 



This division commences therefore, as far as regards the stratification, at 

 the point where No. 1 terminates Beginning in the bed of the Daven 

 rivulet, nearly 2 miles S. E. from the village of Llanon, the line proceeds 

 southward until it again intersects the Llwchor River, about three quar- 

 ters of a mile below the town of Llwchor, and terminates on a marsh 

 called Morva Llew, in Glamorganshire ; its length being 5| miles, and its 

 general direction S., 10° W. This division is constructed from a variety of 

 surveys, and from sections obtained by the different operations of sinking, 

 boring, driving levels, and working Coal, connected with the opening 

 out of two Collieries under my direction, nearly in the line of section. 

 Beginning at its northern end, the strata, for upwards of a mile, are 

 composed chiefly of a hard coarse Sandstone, containing 2 or 3 thin 

 beds of Coal, or rather that variety of Free burning Coal, which, from its 

 soft quality, has already been described as " Culm." This series of 

 thick Sandstone beds would appear to be equivalent to the Sandstone 

 called the " Pennant Rock," which separates the lower from the upper 

 Coal seams, near the eastern termination of the Basin. The " Trosserch 

 seams," the most northern represented in this division, and of which I 

 cannot now ascertain the thickness, are both composed of free-burning 

 Culm, as are the next above them, the "Clyngwernon seams," 40 to 60 

 fathoms above which occurs the seam «f Free-burning Coal called the 

 " Penprys seam," which, at a distance of 300 yards to the westward of c?^ 

 (^see the section,) is overlaid by a 2i feet seam of Bituminous Coal called 

 the " Gelle Gille seam." Between these two latter seams there is an in- 

 terval of about 90 fathoms, in which two or three thin beds of Coal 

 occur. The Gelle Gille is not only remarkable as being the only seam 

 of Bituminous Coal rising to the northward in this part of the Coal- 

 field, but it is probably the highest seam in the whole mineral Basin. 

 Although barely coming within the range of Bituminous Coals, and 

 and consequently being only weak for smiths' purposes, yet, owing to 

 its extreme freedom from sulphur, considerable quantities are exported 

 for that purpose from Llanelly to Brittany. The peculiar qualities of 

 the Penprys seam have been already described under the head of Free- 

 burning Coal.* From the Penprys pits, 23 fathoms to this seam, con- 



* An extensive tract of this seam will shortly be won by means of a pit, which I set off 



