26 Original Articles. [Jan., 



the Lancashire coal-field to a depth of 7,000 feet, distributed as 

 follows : — 



Feet. 



Jurassic Strata . ". 1,600 



Triassic „ 4,750 



Permian „ 650 



7,000 



This enormous amount of material which buried the precious 

 deposits of mineral fuel has been swept away, and the north-western 

 coal-fields have been brought to light. In the Central Counties little 

 more than half this amount needed removal in order to disclose the 

 coal-fields of those districts ; further east the amount was still less, 

 but there we approach the margin of the original coal-tract itself. We 

 arrive, therefore, at this conclusion — that Nature put forth her greatest 

 efforts when there was work to be done for a certain beneficial end ; 

 in other words, the utilization of the mineral fuel which had been 

 stored up for countless ages beforehand. 



Now let us for a moment reverse the picture. We can easily con- 

 ceive the elevating forces which have upheaved the formations towards 

 the north-west, acting in such a manner as to have upheaved the for- 

 mations from the south-east. As far as we can see, there is no physical 

 cause why the one should have taken place in preference to the other. 

 In such a case what would have been the result as regards ourselves, 

 our commerce, our position as a nation? It has been shown with 

 a certainty only short of demonstration that there is no coal under 

 the Eastern Counties, and that the coal of the Western has once been 

 placed at inaccessible depths by enormous accumulations of more 

 recent strata. If, therefore, the upheaval and denudation had taken 

 place from the south-east, it is perfectly clear that the coal-fields of 

 the North-west and Central Counties would have remained buried at 

 unapproachable depths ; and in the east of England, a region composed 

 of granitoid or slaty rocks would have been brought to light ; in a 

 word, we should have had a region in Suffolk such as North Wales, 

 and one resembling Cambridgeshire in Lancashire. 



But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that however large the 

 areas of coal which Providence has placed within our reach, still larger 

 areas are concealed to view, and an extent of coal-ground equalling 

 the whole of that now remaining, whether at the surface or below it, 

 has been entirely swept away. If we compare the extent of the original 

 coal-formation, as shown on the map which accompanies this paper, 

 with that given in the first Number of this Journal showing the 

 actual coal-areas, we shall be struck with this fact. Nature in this 

 case, while operating for the future benefit of the patient, has not 

 neglected to make use of the knife ; but as it is better for a patient 

 to lose a limb in order to save his life, so we have no right to complain 

 if our present extent of coal-surface has been secured at the sacrifice 

 of even a large part of the original area. 



