598 Coal and Coal Miners. 



Mr. Dickinson are still available. In North Wales 

 there are probably about 41 beds of coal over one foot 

 in thickness, and according to Mr. Dickinson more than 

 2,100 millions of tons may still be extracted. In the 

 Northumberland and Durham coalfield at least 9 

 beds are worked, and the amount still available is 

 about 10,000 millions of tons, according to Mr. Foster ; 

 and in Cumberland the same authority states that 

 about 405 millions of tons still remain un worked and 

 available. 



In the foregoing estimates, taken from the Coal 

 Commission Eeport (1871), all coals over one foot 

 in thickness are included, and it has been assumed that 

 all coals under 4,000 feet in depth may be available, 

 though this may possibly be an over-estimate as to 

 the depth at which coals may be worked, in conse- 

 quence of increase of temperature as we sink to lower 

 depths. The total amounts to more than 90,000 mil- 

 lions of tons. 



The population employed in working coal-pits was 

 said by the Inspectors of Coal-mines in 1870 to be 

 350,894 persons, and the quantity of coal raised in the 

 same year is calculated by Mr. Hunt to have been about 

 110 millions of tons. In 1875, the coal-pit population 

 was 535,845, and in 1876,515,845. The quantity of 

 coal raised in 1875 was 133,306,485 tons, extracted 

 from 4,445 collieries, and in 1876, 134,125,166 tons, 

 from 4,329 collieries. These figures are taken from 

 the annual statistics compiled by the Inspectors of 

 Mines, and a curious calculation is made by Mr. 

 Thomas Bell, that if all the coal raised in 1876 were 

 averaged at 12 inches thick, it would require 158 

 square miles of coal to yield the amount given above. 

 A statement such as this brings the quantity more 



