Our Future Coal Fields. 437 



removed by the action of the water, while those same deposits 

 would be only slightly affected in places remote from the 

 centres of igneous activity, except, perhaps, to get an addi- 

 tional layer of matter from the denudation of the beds where 

 elevation was progressing. 



This period was succeeded by that in which the lower New 

 Red deposits, or Permian rocks, were formed upon the edges 

 of the coal measures. A still further obscuration of the coal 

 would take place during the Triassic and Liassic periods ; so 

 that, doubtless, previous to the time when the Oolite was 

 deposited, the whole or greater part of the present Northern 

 and Midland coal-fields were completely hidden beneath a 

 great thickness of superincumbent material. Igneous action 

 again came into operation, and elevated particular tracts, 

 and the Red Rocks were completely carried away by denudation, 

 leaving large areas of Upper Carboniferous rocks exposed. 



Such is a brief history of the coal-fields stretching at 

 intervals from Fifeshire into the central part of England. 

 Assuming then that these coal-producing areas were once 

 connected, and that this connection still remains intact, though 

 obscured by later formations, attention has recently been 

 turned to the probable thickness of the Red Rocks which form 

 the large and fertile agricultural plains of Cheshire, Shropshire, 

 Staffordshire, and other parts of central England. Compared 

 with these tracts, the existing coal-fields shade into insig- 

 nificance, and the bare prospect of successfully following the 

 known coal-seams beneath the Permian and Triassic systems 

 opens up such fabulous dreams of wealth, that it is difficult to 

 contemplate the possibility of so much good fortune with 

 equanimity. Notwithstanding the rapidly increasing rate at 

 which we are exhausting the coal measures of Northumberland, 

 Yorkshire, Staffordshire, and Lancashire, we have good reason 

 to believe that there are greater treasures in store than we 

 have yet extracted. In the north, several mines have been 

 sunk through the Permian beds, and coal of excellent quality 

 has been obtained. On the western side of the Warwickshire 

 field, similar experiments have been successfully made. The 

 Permians adjoining South Staffordshire have been proved to 

 over-lie the famous ten-yard seam of that coal-field. On the 

 western border of the Coalbrookdale district, the Red Rocks 

 have been sunk through, and coal has been found. The same 

 has been done in Derbyshire and other places, and hence it may 

 be considered as an established fact that we may regard the 

 Red Sandstone plains of central England as only one great but 

 obscured coal-field, which at no remote period will be studded 

 with mining appliances, and will be busy with all the con- 

 comitants of a vast manufacturing district. The problems yet 



