Mr. Buddle on Mining Records. 335 



current of air may be divided into almost any number of branches, either 

 in the shafts or workings of a colliery. 



11. — General Remarks. 



Nothing is of more importance in recording the state in which collieries 

 or mines of any description have been left than accurate plans of the work- 

 ings ; and, in order to preserve a knowledge of their localities and names, 

 some of the pits, at least, should have cones of masonry built round them, 

 with a tablet built into the wall, on which the name of the pit and the 

 date when the colliery ceased to work should be inscribed. 



The want of some such memorial has frequently occasioned great incon- 

 venience to the proprietor as well as to the mine adventurer. Even in cases 

 where reports of the state of the underground workings have been left on 

 record, those reports have been found of little use, from the impossibility 

 of identifying the pits or localities to which they referred. This incon- 

 venience was seriously felt at the accident by drowning at Heaton Colliery 

 in 1815, when the water broke in from the former old workings in the rise 

 division of the colliery ; for, although this part of the colliery had only 

 been relinquished 70 years, several of the pits, and other parts of the work- 

 ings to which the various views and reports we were able to collect refer- 

 red, could not be identified. 



Similar difficulty was experienced from the same cause, in the re-open- 

 ing of Jesmond Colliery, by the late Sir Thomas Burdon. Indeed, the 

 same observation applies to every re-opened colliery in the country with 

 which I am acquainted, that has lain dormant for half a century. 



It would also be requisite to state whether the pits are filled up or scaf- 

 fi >lded, and if the latter, at what depth from the surface. 



The plans of the pits being marked in this way, and the magnetic varia- 

 tion at the time the working ceased, being recorded, the true line of bear- 

 ing at any future period of the underground workings might be ascertained 

 from the plan, without having a true meridian line set out on the surface. 



The reduced plan of Wallsend Colliery which accompanies this memoir 

 is on too small a scale for practical purposes, but as the working plan of 

 the High-main Coal Seam will be deposited in the archives of the Society, 

 it will answer the purpose of future reference. 



