66 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



the empty spaces, b, as the coal is extracted. And a sort of bed is 

 thus made to receive the descending roof. It is stifling work in these 

 thin seams when the poor hewers have to lie on their sides and ply 

 their picks against the black wall in face of them, with a yellow 



]?ig. 6.— Plan of worked-ont Mine. 

 a, the galleries with their walls of solid coal; B, C, the "goafs," or worked-out spaces filled 

 with shale and rubbish ; D, shaft ; b e, dip-head level. 



candle flaring in the one hand, (or a Davy,) the elbow resting in a 

 hole cut to receive it, and the whole man sweating in a hot atmosphere 

 for hours together. It is a heavy price to pay for comfort above ground. 

 But they do not murmur; and a good hewer will clear eighteen 

 shillings a week, after paying for his candles, tools, &c. ; while the 

 overmen receive twenty-five to thirty shillings. 



The thick coal of Staffordshire was formerly mined on the " pillar 

 and stall" system ; and Mr. Warington Smyth has given a graphic 

 picture of a " side of work in the ' thick seam,' when a large fall of coal 

 is brought down from the dusky heights of that lofty chamber. The 

 thunder of the falling masses, which seem to shake the solid earth, 

 contrasts fearfully with the dead silence that ensues. The hardy 

 colliers scarce break it by a whisper, while in suspense they listen for 

 the slightest crack which might portend a further fall." But the 

 enormous height of this coal-chamber, often thirty feet, was of itself 

 a source of danger; and the pillars required, and which must be all 

 waste, so large, that it is now found profitable to work it in long- 

 wall" method, a half or more of the seam at a time, beginning at the 

 top. By this means they get all or nearly all the coal — about thirty 

 thousand tons to an acre. They used to get but sixteen thousand. 

 There are four hundred and twenty collieries in this district alone. 

 About one third of the coal they raise is expended in then- furnaces ; 

 (for near a million tons of ironstone are raised in this field annually, 

 besides the coal formerly mentioned, page 10). About half as 

 much is sent from other places ; and a year or two back this quantity 

 produced six hundred thousand tons of pig-iron from sixty-four 



