SALTER — A CHRISTMAS LECTURE ON COAL. 



7 



the question was simply this, " What is coal ?" We are not going to 

 try to give a definition ; but if we can show our young readers (and 

 there are, we hope, a good many of them) a few of the facts connected 

 with the structure, contents, mode of formation, &c, of a coal-field, 

 perhaps we may be able to answer the formidable query, " What is 

 coal ?' ; without calling in the aid of counsel, and our fee is — one 

 shilling. As this is a Christmas lecture for our young friends, we 

 hope our senior readers will not take it amiss if elementary phrases 

 are introduced, and a few woodcuts given to illustrate what they 

 know very well.* And perhaps we may be allowed to speak in the 

 first person singular ; it is more conversational. 



First, then, where is coal found, and how ? Of course we all know 

 it is a mineral substance, bedded deep in the bowels of Old Mother 

 Earth. And I need not tell most of you that Old England has more 

 of it than any other European nation ; that she is much dependent 

 on it for all her industry ; that it has helped to make her peaceful 

 conquests over half the world. And some of you may perhaps know 

 that she is now so tired of using it in this way, that she is going to 

 make a present of one-half of it to her dear friend France— for pur- 

 poses of war ! 



A glance at some of the places celebrated for coal will perhaps be 

 the best way to learn the mode of its occurrence. Let us take for 

 instance a place where they send our best coals from, but where it is 

 no use to send coals to. The Newcastle district is perhaps, all things 

 considered, the richest in England. The river Tyne, rising, as many 

 decent rivers do, in the pure air of the Cheviots, waters all the central 

 parts of Northumberland, and enters the sea at Tynemouth, with far 

 less unsullied purity than it left the mountains with. It is saying 

 much for the traffic on its banks, that the Tyne is nearly as black as 

 the Thames before it reaches the sea. This traffic is wholly in coal. 



The Tyne cuts its way through the very heart of the coal-field ; 

 the flourishing towns of Hexham, Gateshead, and Newcastle being 

 some of those which dot its banks, while Tynemouth and Shields are 

 the grand ports for its black produce. Get out your map of Eng- 

 land if you please, as we shall have further occasion to refer to it. 

 And now I think of it, the little map, coloured by Sir Roderick Mur- 

 chison, and published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge, is the best we can have, for it has both map and geology 

 all in one.f 



Well, we are on the banks of Tyne, looking at the never-ending 

 chimneys and coal-engines. The river is full of collier-brigs ; and at 

 the ports there are the long high jetties for embarking coal, and the 

 blazing coke-heaps on the wharves, for the black diamond is not only 

 life but fight to Newcastle. 



# And it must be understood that we are not going over again the same ground 

 which Prof. Buckman took in the first volume of this work. He was showing 

 us how to search for coal, this is for those who know very little about it. 



t Stanford's, Charing Cross. Price 5s. 



