THE GEOLOGIST. 
SEPTEMBER, 1861. 
THE TORBANE HILL MINERAL. 
By the Editor. 
" Not many years ago," Mr. Salter tells us in his admirable "Lecture 
on Coal," printed in this volume, "the ' bigwigs ' in England were 
assembled in conclave, and the elite of science was called before 
them" to determine what certain " lumps of a blackish brown sub- 
stance" were. Was it carbon ? Was it shale ? Was it cannel ? 
Was it COAL ? Now it was on Friday, the 29th July, 1853, that 
these " bigwigs" were assembled at Edinburgh to give evidence or 
opinion in the great trial of Gillespie against RusseU. The issues 
put to the jury were, " Whether the defenders are tenants of certain 
minerals in the lands of Torbane Hill belonging to the pursuers 
under a missive of agreement ? and whether in the course of the 
period between the term of Candlemas 1850 and the month of May 
1852 the defenders wrought and put out from the same lands of 
Torbane Hill a valuable mineral substance not let to them by the 
said missive, to the loss, injury, and damage of the pursuers ?" and 
the damages were laid at ten thousand pounds. 
This, in simple language, amounted to this : Gillespie had let to 
the Russells certain lands, with the right to dig coals; but the 
RusseUs, after they got their lease, extracted another substance pre- 
VOL. iv. 2 Q 
