214 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
mistakes would they not have anticipated ! and yet, perhaps, 
the pleasure of working one's own way, and gleaning infor- 
mation painfully and almost in the dark, afforded more real 
enjoyment than even to get information thus ready pre- 
pared and perfected. The whole district of Edinburghshire 
is exclusively a coal-field, forming a portion of that great 
Palseozoic deposit which occupies the basins of the Firths of 
Forth and Clyde, extending from sea to sea on the east and 
west. A sketch of the filling up of this great basin or open 
sea, from the commencement of the Carboniferous era to its 
close, and the elevation of the whole by the intrusion of 
trap-rocks, was then given, — the total absence of all appear- 
ances of subsequent formations, from the Coal to the Ter- 
tiaries inclusive, in this district, — then the numerous traces 
of the glacial operations visible in the drift, — the evidences 
of a greater extension of the present estuary of the Forth 
at the close of this glacial period, — and the movements and 
■changes of level, which probably had a considerable efi'ect 
in moulding the present aspect of the district posterior to 
the glacial deposits. The earliest notices of the working of 
coal in this district, and probably in Britain, occur in char- 
ters obtained by the monks of Newbattle to dig coals on 
the Pinkie Burn, near Tranent, in the years 1200 and 1284. 
But it was several centuries after this before coal came into 
general use. We read of frequent fires occurring in Edin- 
burgh from the ignition of stacks of heather, furze, and 
peat, which it was the practice of the citizens to collect and 
carefully pile up in the areas and closes for fuel. And so 
late as the year 1560, robberies were so common on the 
streets in the dark winter nights, that a rope was tied across 
the principal thoroughfares, to which a bowat or lantern 
was suspended in the centre, containing a single tallow 
candle, which " paled its ineffectual fire," where now, in the 
same localities, gas blazes, and innumerable coal fires enliven 
the gloom of the winter nights. It is well known that 
Newcastle coal was prohibited to be used within the city of 
London by act of Parliament, on account of its " noxious, 
sulphureous, and pestilent smoke while at the present 
day no less than seventy millions of tons of coals are raised 
