318 The Supply and Waste of Goal. 



hasty writers on this subject have regarded the breaking-up 

 of the coal in this way by fault, as a sjDecial and providential 

 arrangement, to bring within range portions of a valuable 

 material which would otherwise have been useless, at least to 

 the present generation. It needs but little knowledge of the 

 coal-fields of other parts of the world to show, in the first place, 

 that vast areas of coal may exist in a workable state, and in 

 the most convenient position, without any faults or fractures at 

 all ; secondly, that the faulting is anything but an advantage, 

 even in England ; and, thirdly, that the temptation to abuse 

 and waste this valuable material — to throw away more than 

 half the natural supply in order to obtain the remainder at a 

 somewhat earlier period, and at a somewhat cheaper price — has 

 been systematically yielded to by the people supposed to be 

 worthy of this miraculous interposition. Certainly a different 

 distribution of the beds, and a somewhat firmer roof, would 

 have been a simpler aud more effectual means of securing a 

 permanent supply. 



But without entering into this question, which is not one 

 here to be discussed, there can be no doubt that the extreme 

 complication manifest in the coal measures, the multitude of 

 faults, and the numerous thinnings-out of the seams, as well as 

 the impossibility of identifying beds in distant parts of the 

 country, is connected in an important manner with the general 

 geology of England, and the special structure of the country at 

 the time when the vegetable matter was accumulated, but not 

 at all to the nature of coal itself, or to the removal of coal once 

 formed to a convenient distance from the surface. 



The coals of different parts of the world agree in essential 

 characters, but differ so considerably in detail, that no practical 

 difficulty is experienced in distinguishing them. To the 

 uninstructed, there are but three or four recognizable varieties, 

 such as stone-coal, or anthracite, burning without flame; 

 caking-coal, burning with long flame, and cementing into a 

 compact mass as it burns ; hard-coal, burning to a white or 

 red powdery ash without caking; and canncl-coal, which does 

 not soil the fingers. Few but those interested in the coal 

 trade, or using coal in large quantities for manufacturing 

 purposes, are aware of the extreme difference in value, aud the 

 facility of recognizing the kinds from various localities, or from 

 the several seams of the same mining district. 



The points of chief importance in a coal-field, speaking 

 solely witln reference to economic value^, are the following: — 

 ]. The quality of the coal. 2. The thickness of the scam. 3. 

 The depth at which the workings must bo carried on. 4. The 

 nature of the roof and floor. 5. The state of the measures 

 with regard to water. 6. The degree to which the measures 



