35^ 



THE GEOLOGIST, 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



STATEMENT KESPECTING A FEO& FOUND IN SOLID FREESTONE, 90 TAEDS FNDEB 

 GEOUND, AT DUNDONALD COLLIEEY, IN FIFE. 



In the year 1856, two miners of the names of Henry Allen and David Mitchell, 

 were employed by Mr. iSTasmytli, the lessee of the Dundonald Coal-field, in 

 working a seam of coal called the " Little Splint/' about 45 fathoms fi'om the 

 surface. Between that seam and the surface are various seams of coal, freestone, 

 shale, ironstone, and other usual strata. Some of these seams of coal have been 

 worked in former times, and, of course, as these workings were abandoned for 

 other parts of the mine, the old workings would get flooded, or, in mining-language, 

 drowned. The strata other than the coal-seams are unworked, and, of course, exist 

 in all their solidity at the present moment, one of them being a seam of ironstone 

 not considered sufficiently valuable to be worked at present. Below the "Little 

 Spint " coal-seam, on which the miners were employed, is a stratum of solid 

 freestone rock, 7 fathoms or 42 feet in thickness, and below that other coal-seams 

 are kno^vn to exist, but these have not yet been v/orked, nor fully explored. 



The " Little Splint'"' coal is not a thick seam, and, as it was being worked, it was 

 thought advisable to give more room for the haulage of the coal by taking up a few 

 feet of the freestone rock which lay below it. The miners above-mentioned were 

 specially employed in this labovir, and in blasting it to the required depth. In this 

 latter operation, it is necessary to be careful in seeing whether there are any rents, 

 fissures, or cracks — technically called "cutters" — of any kind in the rock, 

 because, if there are, the powder will not have effect, and the miner's labour is lost. 

 In this instance the miners state that the rock was peculiarly solid, and free from 

 anything of the sort, being, in fact, as they termed it, a fine rock to blast. On one 

 occasion they bored, as usual, the holes on the top of the rock to the accustomed 

 depth j having previously examined the solidity of the part where these were to be 

 drilled, they put in the powder in the usual manner and fired it, retiring, of course, 

 out of danger. As soon as the explosion had taken place, the miners went forward 

 to take away the pieces which had been blown apart, when an animal jumped out 

 of the rent which had been made by the explosion. It jumped a considerable 

 distance, apparently with a strong convulsive effort, and then jumped again in 

 another direction, and continued doing so three or four times in succession. 

 Henry Allen was much alarmed at the apparition, and ran away to call Charles 

 Nasmyth, the overman of the underground workers, who immediately ran to the 

 spot, fearing some accident had happened. On his arrival (only a few minutes 

 afterwards) he found Mitchell examining the animal, which proved to be a frog, 

 and which l:y that time was almost dead, or at least was just expiring. A can of 

 water, which the miners had for drinking, was there at the time, irrto this they put 

 the frog; they then examined the place wheirce it had jumped oirt, and discovered 

 a (.avity just below where they had made the selection for placing the boring tools ; 

 this cavity was ten inches long and about three inches or so in width arrd depth, 

 while the rock was perfectly solid all round it. It was horizontal, as sho\\Ti in 

 the accompanying sketcl . There was no w^ater in it, but it was slimy, apparently 

 from the frog itself. There was a good deal of blackness about it as well as about 

 the frog; but that appeared attributable to the powder, as the frog afterwards became 

 lighter in colour. Mr. Nasmyth, the lessee of the colliery, took the frog to 

 Kirkaldy, where it was exhibited for some time, and, then hearing that I was 

 making a collection of fossils found in the various coal-mines belongirrg to me, 

 gave it to me, and it is now in nry possession. 



The above are the facts of the case as detailed to me by Heirry Allen and 

 Charles Nasmyth themselves, who are still at Dundonald Colliery, and whom 

 1 went expressly to question on the subject. I asked why they did not 

 briug up the pieces of the rock ; they said they did not think of it, as it was their 

 business to output conl and not stone, and, thinking it an established fiict, that 

 ftuiuials had been found living surrounded by a solid mass, they did not think so 



