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 hi^h on its lime- 
stone terrace. Don't give all your attention to the mountains, but 
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 Hne 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 excejD- 
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 mn 
among these hiUs ^viU 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 quarr}^, 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. G. P. Bevan, the reader 
may turn to vol. i. of this work, p. 126, &c. 
