437 
OUR COAL RESOURCES. 
BY WALTER ROWLEY, M.INST.C.E., F.S.A., F.G.S. 
{A presidential address delivered before the Yorkshire Geological 
and Polytechnic Society, February 2oih, 1904.) 
It is now some 33 years ago since, in the year 1871, with 
the confidence of 3'outh I ventured first to address the members 
of this society at Doncaster, my subject being " Some Observa- 
tions on Coal and Coal Alining, and the Economical Working 
of our Coalfields," and therefore it will, I think, not be without 
interest to glance at the tremendous strides made in the science 
and art of mining in recent j'ears. In the year 1870, the pro- 
duction of coal from the collieries of Great Britain was 110 
million tons, while the outjDut of 1903 was, roughly, 230 million 
tons, or more than double ; but while the output has doubled, 
the death rate from accidents has been very greatly reduced, 
from 1 in 345 of persons employed in 1870, to 1 in 805 in 1902. 
This remarkable decrease in the number of accidents is un- 
doubtedly due to the rise of greatly improved means of educa- 
tion, which led to the passing of the various Coal Mines Regu- 
lation Acts, and the appointment of inspectors of mines. The 
question of our coal supplies and their duration has been often 
discussed, and the last Royal Commission on the subject was 
held in the year 1870. It is an interesting and fascinating 
subject, the importance of which it would be difficult to over- 
estimate ; the difference in prosperity between a country riclily 
endowed with coal and one without, being strikingly borne out 
by tlie case of our sister isle Irela^nd, whose great floor of Car- 
boniferous Limestone and small patches of Coal Measures point 
to the probability that it was at one time covered \^'ith Coal 
Measures, which, unfortunately, have been denuded away. 
It is, therefore, very gratifying to those of us who have long 
given the subject anxious thought, to see springing up this 
universal desire on the part of all to conserve the resources 
which have been so generously bestowed, for, in this country, 
the proportion between our coalfields and the area of land is 
