114 kell: section at barrow collieries, worsbro'. 
and spavin render it useless. Before reaching the Parkgate 
seam we passed through two layers of cank ; but there is no 
trace of these at either Hoyland or Rockingham ; in their 
place we find 10 feet of hard stone in the latter section. 
The Parkgate seam is found at a depth of 372 yards, of 
rather above an average thickness, but the quality is such 
as to make it not workable in the present depressed state 
of trade, and consequently it has been abandoned at most of 
the collieries in the district. 
Just below the Parkgate we came across some bind, 
containing a quantity of ironstone, and below that again a 
thin seam of coal, and with this the Rockingham section 
agrees ; but the strata at Hoyland is somewhat different. 
After passing through 21 feet of strong dark bind we en- 
countered 16 feet of very hard rock, the same rock being 
11 feet at Hoyland and 28 feet at Rockingham. We met 
with the Thorncliffe thin seam at a depth of 410 yards, 
being 38 yards below the Parkgate, and 4 feet thick, the 
Hards or upper portion of the seam being 2 feet 8 inches, and 
the Softs or lower portion 1 foot 4 inches. We are now 
working this seam. 
The uniformity in the strata still continues between the 
Barrow and Rockingham sections, but we find that in 
the Hoyland section the distance between the Parkgate and 
the Thorncliffe is 8 yards less, being only 30 yards, but the 
thickness and character of the seam is very similar at all the 
collieries. 
The work of sinking below the Thorncliffe seam pro- 
gressed rapidly, as much as 12 yards being sunk in one week, 
the strata being of a softer nature, and after passing through 
four thin seams of coal, and which are likewise found in the 
Hoyland and Rockingham sections, the exertions of two and 
a half years were at length crowned with success by the 
Silkstone seam being won at a depth of 469 yards, on the 
