102 



LOWER COAL MEASURES. 



annexed wood-cut. The vertical or highly inclined lines (a.) (a.) are true faults, the 

 ends of the coal seams (6.) (&.) are " Symon " faults. 



12. 



A section of the Hill Lane Pits near Madeley may be given as an instructive example of the suc- 

 cession in one spot where the strata are pretty fully developed. In a shaft two hundred and thirty 

 yards in depth, we are presented with twenty-one carbonaceous beds, of which the eleven upper- 

 most are sulphureous and impure. Upper coals, similar to those at Caughley and Tasley, alternate 

 with clays, marls, sandstones both argillaceous and calcareous, and with calcareous breccia or con- 

 glomerate. Some of these beds may represent the upper coal measures of Manchester. The lower 

 coals, or those extracted for use, which in this shaft are reached at a depth of about one hundred 

 and ninety-eight yards, are named in descending order. 



ft. in. 



1. Viger Coal 1 8 



2. Two-foot Coal 1 8 



3. Little-Ganey o 7 



4. Lower-Ganey 1 6 



5. Best Coal 2 5 



6. Randle Coal 2 8 



7. Clod Coal 1 4 



8. Little Flint Coal 2 6 



9. Coal under Crawstone 1 0 



10. Lancashire Ladies' Coal 0 9 



Total of good Coal in this shaft 15 11 



In the above list the beds which separate the seams of coal are omitted. 



The following table will explain to the reader how little the beds of coal are persistent, 

 and how much they vary in their dimensions in different parts of the field, the united 

 thickness of the mass of coal in any one shaft never being dependent upon the number 

 of the seams. 



Pits. Thickness of Coal. No. of beds of Coal. 



yds. ft. in. 



Hadley 15 0 0 16 



SnedsHill 14 2 2 12 



Malinslee 11 0 10 13 



Langley 11 2 6 11 



Dawley 14 0 0 16 



Lightmoor 13 2 0 17 



Madeley 1 10 2 10 24 (21 to 24.) 



Broseley 7 0 9 13 



The ironstone so largely worked in this field is both concretionary and flat- bedded, but for the 



1 In this table all the coal seams, of whatever quality, are enumerated. In other sinkings, as at Madeley 

 Meadow Pits, as many as twenty-seven seams of coal of pure and impure quality have been passed through. 



