Coal and Coal Mining. 



313 



Scolytus destructor Ol. was found abundantly in the bark of 

 a blown elm tree. 



A nice colony of Ahdera Jiexuosa Pk. was found in hard dry 

 fungi on an alder tree. 



I secured a small series of the rare Donacia obscura Gyll. 

 and also a number of the beautiful D. dentipes F. in the Penrith 

 district. 



Where no locality is mentioned the insects have been taken 

 in the Eden Valley near Great Salkeld. 







COAL AND COAL MINING. 



Probably at no period in the history of this country has there 

 been such an interest exhibited in coal and coal mining- as at 

 the present time, and it is pleasing- to find that as a result of the 

 recent Royal Commission on Coal Supplies there is no cause for 

 anxiety as to whether there is a dang-er of exhausting- that 

 valuable mineral in this country. 



Two exceedingly valuable volumes bearing on this subject 

 have recently been issued from the offices of the * Colliery 

 Guardian ' Company."''" The first of these is the second series of 

 the ' Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade,' the first volume 

 of which, published in 1898, contained a carefully prepared 

 and interesting record of the use of coal from about 350 B.C. to 

 the year 1835. In that volume, which is well illustrated by maps, 

 diagrams, sections, etc., Mr. Galloway brings forward evidence to 

 show that coal was probably in use in Roman times, particularly 

 on the line of the Great Wall from the Tyne to the Solway 

 Firth. (The recent researches of Mr. May in Warringtonf 

 would appear to confirm the views there expressed.) The author 

 then comments upon the absence of authentic records relating 

 to the use of coal in Britain daring the dark ages ; the well- 

 known passage in the ' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ' probably refer- 

 ring to peat and not coal. i\fter quoting some rather vague and 

 ambiguous items supposed to refer to coal in the Norman period, 

 Mr. Galloway takes up in earnest the history of the working 

 and use of the mineral from about the year 1200 a.d., at which 



* 'Annals of Coal Mining- and the Coal Trade,' 2nd Series, by Robert L. 

 Galloway. London. 409 pp. 



' Dig-est of the Evidence Given before the Royal Commission on Coal 

 Supplies.' Vol. I. 474 pp. Price 21s. 



t' Warring-ton's Roman Remains.' 1904. See ' Naturalist,' February 190;,, 

 P- 63- 



1905 October ji. 



