Mr. B ubdle' s Synopsis of the Newcastle Coal Field. 219 



It extends over a very limited tract of country, being denudated, and 

 cut off by the river Tyne to the north, and is thrown out to the surface 

 to the south-west and west by a Slip Dyke and the natural rise of the 

 strata. This seam was worked formerly at Monkton and Hebburn Fell; 

 the Coal is of inferior quality, and is interstratified with stone bands. 

 It cannot be wrought to profit at this time. 



B. The Three-quarter Coal. — This seam is of very uncertain thick" 

 ness and inferior quality ; it has never been worked except partially for 

 land-sale, towards its crop near Haddrick's mill, on the Ouseburn. 



C. The High Main Coal is the best seam in the district, in point of 

 thickness and quality. It becomes unworkable at a short distance to 

 the south of the Tyne, by being interstratified with a stone called the 

 Heworth band. 



The line of the Heworth band runs in the direction of about N. 80° E. 

 by compass. It has been traced from Felling to North Shields, crossing 

 the river three times in that space. The seam extends over a large 

 tract of country to the north, but varies much in thickness and quality 

 in that direction. It is found in the greatest perfection between the 

 river Tyne and the Main Dyke, the seam being thrown so far below the 

 surface (about 190 fathoms) by the Main Dyke, on the north side of 

 Newcastle Town-moor, brings a large tract of it in again, on the dip 

 side of the Dyke, in which the collieries of Fawdon, Coxlodge, Gosforth, 

 Burradon, and Wideopen, are at present working. This tract extends 

 considerably to the west of the meridian of Newcastle. A large tongue 

 or tract of this seam, lying on the south or rise side of the Main Dyke, 

 also runs up to the westward of the meridian of Newcastle, as far as 

 Benwell, where it crops out on the declivity of the hill, leading towards 

 Denton Burn. A great part of the seam in this tract at Benwell and 

 Fenham was destroyed by a conflagration about the middle of the six- 

 teenth century, and the remainder has since been entirely wrought out. 



D. The Metal Coal Seam is of second-rate quality, and has only been 

 partially worked. In the north-western parts of the district it is not 

 found in a workable state. 



