132 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



" The manner of boring for coal through these ancient rocks (the 

 Silurian), of which many other examples are cited in this work, has 

 unfortunately affected some of the inhabitants of this tract. At Mathon 

 Lodge (Malvern), in 1832, I found open shafts which had been sunk 

 to a depth of about 120 ya/rds in the Lower Ludlow rock, where it 

 ought to have been apparent to any one, however ignorant of 

 geological phenomena, that the limestone of the adjacent ridge of 

 Croft Farm and Castle Copse must, by its inclination, be carried 

 beneath this very shale. This, as well as other absurd trials in the 

 incoherent shale of the ' Silurian System,' whenever it happens to be 

 black, has been caused entirely by the lithological and mineral 

 character of the rock, which in truth does not differ very materially to 

 an unpractised eye from the shales of the coal measures." — Silurian 

 System, p. 411. 



I have hitherto been considering cases in which there can be no doubt 

 that coal must be entirely absent ; and hence where speculation must be 

 perfectly hopeless. I shall now, however, call attention to circumstances 

 of a different nature — where there seems every reason to believe that coal 

 is below the district to be examined, but at so great a depth as to render 

 it practically beyond reach. Some two or three such cases, and the 

 facts connected with them, I shall now give, in the order in which 

 they occurred in cases within my own experience. The first was about 

 four miles to the east of the borough of Droitwich, in "Worcestershire, 

 where mining operations were commenced at the instigation of a gentle- 

 man who had bought an estate in the district, mainly, as I thought, from 

 a belief that the prevalent tradition of coal having been found there 

 many years ago" was founded on fact. Having secured his purchase, the 

 first thing he did was— not to obtain the opinion of a geologist, but to 

 send into Staffordshire for a practical miner," with whose report he 

 was so satisfied as at once to commence boring, as a preliminary step to 

 the sinking of a shaft. 



The boring went on from day to day as rapidly as such operations 

 can be accomplished, and each day the report to the proprietor was, that 

 they were nearer the coal— until, from about the depth of 150 yards, 

 some coal was absolutely brought to the surface. This was tested — it 

 was indeed coal, and burnt well, which is not to be wondered at when 

 it is considered that it was a portion of Staffordshire coal, which had 

 been put down by a dishonest workman. However, this fraud not being 



