PEOCEEDINGS or GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
73 
area that would only admit of a very limited output if the long-Tvall sj'stem 
was used. With many this is an advanta,^e that must weigh much in its 
favour ; although he \a as not an advocate for raising very large quantities 
where a smaller quantity, with judicious management, would produce a 
better profit. With the pillar-and-stall system the workings may be con- 
ducted any reasonable distance upon the line of level, the only limits being 
the increased cost of conveying the coal to the pit's eye, and the difficulty 
of thoroughly veniilating the workings, owing to the increased drag or 
resistance that has to be met in conveying currents of air through long 
air-courses. 
With the long-wall system the case is very diSerent ; for owing to the 
difficulty and expense of keeping good the wagon- and air-roads, the dis- 
tance is practically limited in many mines to a few hundred yards. The 
greatest distance on the line of level known to be worked out upon the 
long-wall system is rather more than 800 j^ards. 
Where there are numerous faults, it is difficult to work a mine to advan- 
tage upon the pillar-and-stall system, but it is still more difficult upon the 
long-wall system ; but the former system can be used under some circum- 
stances where it would almost be impossible to wofk upon the long-wall 
system. 
The quantity of timber that is used is not materially different whether 
the coal be worked on the long-wall, or pillar-and-stall systems, providing 
equal skill is displayed in laying out the workings, etc. While the cost of 
getting depends so much upon circumstances that it is unsafe to hazard an 
opinion in favour of either system, unless both have been employed in the 
same mine, under very similar circumstances, — and even in cases where 
that course has been adopted — the results have been sometimes in favour 
of the pillar-and-stall system, and at others vice versa. It may be that 
occasionally some other sj'stem will answer better than either of the sys- 
tems under consideration, for we by no moans embrace the whole of the 
systems of getting coal when we speak of the pillar-and-stall and long- 
wall, although many of the methods of working coal are but modifications 
of either one or the other. 
Mr. Binney said : " Xo doubt there will be more advocates for the pillar- 
and-stall system in Lancashire than for the long-wall. If the Lancashire 
gentlemen went into North Derbyshire, probably they would find a great 
many advocates of the long-wall system, and they would see advantages 
there which they do not see in Lancashire. The same remark will apply 
to the East of Scotland. The different systems of long-wall and pillar- 
and-stall workings would liave difi'erent advantages in particular districts. 
In Derbyshire, where the long-wall system has been going on for 150 
or 200 years, the men are so thoroughly drilled to it, and work it so scien- 
tifically, that its results would hardly be fair as applied to Lancashire, where 
it would take a long time to get men to work so well at it as they do in 
Derbyshire. On the other hand, there would be a like difficulty in intro- 
ducing the pillar-and-stall system into Derbyshire. 
Philosophical Society, Maxchestee. — January 13. — Mr. E. W. 
Binney, the President, said : — In a very valuable work lately published by 
that eminent geologist Dr. Geinitz, of Dresden, entitled ' Dyas, or the 
Magnesian Limestone Formation and the Lower New Eed Sandstone,' the 
author, whom he had the pleasure of accompanying over some of the Per- 
mian deposits of South Lancashire, had done him the honour to allude to 
two papers of his, ' On the Permian Deposits of the North-west of Eng- 
land,' printed in vols. xii. and xiv., second series, of the Society's Me- 
moirs. 
YOL. YI. 
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