214 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



mistakes would they not have anticipated ! and yet, perhaps, 

 the pleasure of working one's own way, and gleaning infor- 

 mation painfully and almost in the dark, afforded more real 

 enjoyment than even to get information thus ready pre- 

 pared and perfected. The whole district of Edinburghshire 

 is exclusively a coal-field, forming a portion of that great 

 Palaeozoic deposit which occupies the basins of the Firths of 

 Forth and Clyde, extending from sea to sea on the east and 

 west. A sketch of the filling up of this great basin or open 

 sea, from the commencement of the Carboniferous era to its 

 close, and the elevation of the whole by the intrusion of 

 trap-rocks, was then given, — the total absence of all appear- 

 ances of subsequent formations, from the Coal to the Ter- 

 tiaries inclusive, in this district, — then the numerous traces 

 of the glacial operations visible in the drift, — the evidences 

 of a greater extension of the present estuary of the Forth 

 at the close of this glacial period, — and the movements and 

 changes of level, which probably had a considerable effect 

 in moulding the present aspect of the district posterior to 

 the glacial deposits. The earliest notices of the working of 

 coal in this district, and probably in Britain, occur in char- 

 ters obtained by the monks of Newbattle to dig coals on 

 the Pinkie Burn, near Tranent, in the years 1200 and 1284. 

 But it was several centuries after this before coal came into 

 general use. We read of frequent fires occurring in Edin- 

 burgh from the ignition of stacks of heather, furze, and 

 peat, which it was the practice of the citizens to collect and 

 carefully pile up in the areas and closes for fuel. And so 

 late as the year 1560, robberies were so common on the 

 streets in the dark winter nights, that a rope was tied across 

 the principal thoroughfares, to which a bowat or lantern 

 was suspended in the centre, containing a single tallow 

 candle, which " paled its ineffectual fire, " where now, in the 

 same localities, gas blazes, and innumerable coal fires enliven 

 the gloom of the winter nights. It is well known that 

 Newcastle coal was prohibited to be used within the city of 

 London by act of Parliament, on account of its " noxious, 

 sulphureous, and pestilent smoke while at the present 

 day no less than seventy millions of tons of coals are raised 



