SALTER — A CHRISTMAS LECTURE ON COAL. 



11 



are always kept waiting at the Llangollen Road Station), to turn for 

 a while and look over this busy coal-field perched high on its lime- 

 stone terrace. Don't give all yonr attention to the mountains, bnt 

 think of the labour that is going on around you, amid those hundred 

 chimneys and in that dingy atmosphere ; and reflect, too that the pic- 

 turesque scenery on your left is, like much else that is beautiful, only 

 for holiday wear, while the hard work on your right is the true con- 

 dition of our life if we would attain the useful. 



Then if we take the train to Bristol, we shall find another small 

 but productive coal-field, thoroughly well worked, and for its area 

 very rich. It has been computed to contain six thousand millions of 

 tons. If they could only get it all ! It supplies one and a-quarter 

 millions annually. Across the Severn is the Forest of Dean, an oval 

 mass of high ground, rich in coal and iron. It was one of the earliest 

 places where iron was worked ; and the old rude furnaces are still 

 occasionally discovered. There are twenty to thirty seams of coal 

 here ; and if you want to see what a coal-field really is, on a small 

 scale, look at the model by Sopwith of this district. It is in the 

 Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn- street ; and you may know 

 more about a coal-field in an hour by consulting it than by reading 

 this lecture for double the time. 



Now we are near the great South Wales coal-field, or coal-basin, 

 as it is better called ; a mighty mountain mass that runs for seventy 

 miles from Monmouth to Pembroke. Across its width, from Swan- 

 sea to Merthyr, it measures full twenty-five miles. Its area is com- 

 puted at one thousand nine hundred and forty- five square miles, and 

 its production is enormous. Nearly all our steam-coals come from 

 thence ; and there it is that those wonderful furnace-coals, called 

 anthracite, are found. If you draw a line across the field from north 

 to south — from Swansea to Merthyr — you will find that all on the 

 west side is anthracite, or stone-coal, and all on the east bituminous, 

 or caking coal* — -very nearly so. There are, of course, some excep- 

 tions to this remarkable rule, for which I really can give you no good 

 reason. It is supposed that deep-seated volcanic matter has acted 

 on the western half; but we see no trace on the surface of this. The 

 fact is certain, nevertheless, and a very curious fact it is. Those who 

 have had occasion to travel along the network of railways which run 

 among these hills will know that the coal crops out, as it is termed 

 (that is, shows itself), along the sides of the hill in seams. It does 

 not hide itself here in deep underground workings, but is sometimes 

 even wrought out in the face of day as a quarry, more often obtained 

 by levels into the heart of the mountain, in the way they work for 

 metals. And they have such abundance of water-power, that when 

 compelled to raise coal from greater depths, they can often employ 

 what are called lifts, or balances (cisterns which are alternately filled 

 with water or coal), and so make the water itself lift the coal out. 



* For an excellent short description of this field by Dr. Gr. P. Bevan, the reader 

 may turn to vol. i. of this work, p. 126, &c. 



