iSlS.] Accident at Felling Colliery, , S55 



Here, then, we come to the knowledge of a fact of the 

 utmost importance, that the rocks have been deposited ia 

 succession, that those nearest the central nucleus have been 

 deposited first, and the others in the order of their position. 

 Hence it follows that the language of the Wernerian geognosy 

 is not hypothetical, since ihe formations must actually have been 

 formed in the order of the classes; the primitive first, the 

 transition next, the Jloetz next, and the alluvial last of all. The 

 same holds good with the individual formations. Hence the 

 terms older and newer, as applied to position, are perfectly 

 correct. Granite is demonstrably the oldest, and floetz trap the 

 newest, of the rocks. 



9, Besides the rocky veins, many others occur not precisely 

 similar to any beds hitherto discovered in the great mass of 

 rocks; though it is neither impossible nor improbable that such 

 beds may exist. Considerable progress has been made in classify- 

 ing these veins, which is the first step towards an accurate 

 knowledge of them. When , veins are composed of the same 

 constituents disposed in the same order, they are called veins of 

 the same formation. It has been already shown that several very 

 complicated veins, exactly similar in every particular, occur in 

 countries at great distances from each other, clearly indicating a 

 correspondence in their formation. 



In this paper I have thrown together some of the most impor- 

 tant facts respecting veins, in order to drav/ the attention of the 

 geognosts of this country to the study of them. They constitute 

 the phenomena from which by far the most important data, 

 relative to the way in which the crust of the earth has been 

 formed, may be drawn. In some subsequent essays, which I 

 shall occasionally insert in this journal, I shall throw together 

 the documents by which the truth of the most important of the 

 preceding facts has been ascertained. 



Article V. 



An Account of the dreadful Accident which happened at Felling 

 Colliery, near Sunderland^ on May 25th, 1812. Extracted 

 from an introductory account prefixed to The Funeral Sermon 

 preached on the occasion, and published, by the Rev. John 

 Hodgson. 



(With a plan of the Colliery.) 



Felling is a manor in the chapelry of Heworth, and parish 

 of Jarrow, about a mile and a half east of Gateshead, in the 

 county of Durham, It contains several strata of coal, the 



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