Mr. Bake WELL o?t the Coalfield near Manchester » 283 



siliceous sandstone, similar to that on which the town of Manchester 

 stands, and it is remarkable that v>^ithin 15 or 16 yards of its contact 

 with that rock, the coal is soft and hardly worth working. This 

 rock stretches through the south of Lancashire into Cheshire and 

 Shropshire, and appears to agree in some respects with the old red 

 sandstone of Werner. I have been told by a considerable proprietor 

 of coal-mines in these counties, and I believe it is an opinion very 

 generally entertained, that this sandstone always cuts off the coal-mea- 

 su.es, and that it is useless to search for coal beyond or beneath it. 



The Bradford coalfield appears at first sight to offer an exception 

 to this rule ; but upon more attentive examination it will be found, 

 that what covers the coal-measures there is not the rock itself, but 

 only a portion of it, washed down from the higher lands, and spread 

 over the surface. 



The coal-measures dip to the south at an angle of about 30", and 

 wherever they have been proved, on the southern side of the field, 

 abut against the sandstone ; but on the northern side, at the distance 

 of ten yards from the red rock, a most striking change in the position 

 of the strata is discovered. A bed of coal, four feet in thickness, 

 here rises up to the surface perpendicularly, and terminates the coal- 

 measures, the intermediate space between this bed and the red rock 

 being filled with broken stones or rubble without any appearance of 

 stratification. This perpendicular bed has been worked to the depth 

 of forty feet, and is of the same quality and general appearance as a 

 four-feet bed which rises near the middle of the field. The stone 

 that lies over the one agrees with that adjoining to the other, which 

 the proprietor does not doubt is a portion of the inclined bed broken 

 off, and thrown into its present position. The distance of the per- 

 pendicular bed of coal from the rise of the last bed, that preserves its 

 inclination of 30% is 325 yards, and between these no fracture or 

 fault has been found to explain the difference in their angles of ele- 



