XV. — Observations on the South-western Coal District of England. 



By the Rev. W. BUCKLAND, b.d. f.r.s. v.p.g.s., 

 professor of geology and mineralogy in the university of oxford, 



AND 



The Rev. W. D. CONYBEARE, m.g.s. f.r.s. 



Chapter I.— GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISTRICT. 



Introduction. 



J. HE district, which we purpose to describe in the following memoir^ com- 

 prehends the several coal-fields which lie near the estuary of the Severn and 

 the Bristol Channel, including parts of the adjacent counties of Gloucester, 

 Somerset, Monmouth and Glamorgan. 



These coal-fields, though apparently distinct and insulated, are yet connected 

 together by resting on a common base of old red sandstone. They all appear 

 to have been formed by similar agency, and at the same era ; to have been 

 subject at a later period to the same revolutions; and, lastly, to have been 

 covered partially by similar overlying deposits. The many particulars, there- 

 fore, which they supply in illustration of one another, and their contiguous 

 geographical position, have induced us to collect into one Memoir the mate- 

 rials that we have obtained concerning them. 



Of the great coal-field of South Wales, however, the most extensive of those 

 within our district, we have reserved a full and detailed account for a separate 

 communication; and have here restricted ourselves to such a general descrip- 

 tion of its eastern limits only, as may serve to point out its connexion with the 

 other coal-basins adjoining. 



The district to be examined is of the highest interest to the scientific geo- 

 logist, as serving to establish the relations of some of the most remarkable 

 British rocks; it is of importance to the practical miner, from its numerous 

 strata of coal and iron-ore, so opportunely associated together, and from the 

 limestone-beds which border on the coal, and are employed to flux the iron- 

 ore. Mines of lead-ore and calamine add to the mineral riches of the di- 

 strict: they are worked, however, with little spirit, and are not very pro- 

 ductive. 



