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titles of lead ore mingled with iron pyrites and carbonate of 
lime, have been sometimes found. In sinking the shafts the 
section is as follows: — Soil, clay, band of carbonaceous 
matter, shale and clay, ragstone, blue-stone, Upper Sand- 
stone bed ; shale and clay, Middle Sandstone bed ; shale and 
clay slates. Lower Sandstone bed ; clay iron ore, being 
shale and clay mingled with bouldered ironstone ; hard bed 
of coal, which in these situations is 100 yards from the sur- 
face. Thirty yards below this is the soft bed, to which it is 
necessary to cut through shale, slate, ironstone, and Sand- 
stone rock. The coal of this district is invariably associated 
with a considerable proportion of iron pyrites, the presence 
of which, together with that of clay iron ore, gives a cha- 
racter to many of the springs and running streams. 
The town of Elland, situated upon the Middle Sandstone 
bed, has both hard and soft water ; the former is a never- 
failing supply, obtained by sinking. 
The source of the sulphuretted hydrogen in the water of 
the spa well, will be readily understood from the peculiar 
character of its locality. It is in the immediate vicinity of a 
worked out coal seam, encrusted with pyrites and free sul- 
phur, underlying the clay iron ore. A fault, of which there 
are many in this neighbourhood, brings the sulphur in con- 
tact with the iron ore, when the loater is decomposed ; its 
oxygen per-oxidizing the iron, and the hydrogen combining 
with a portion of the sulphur, give rise to the gaseous com- 
pound impregnating the spring. It must thus be regarded 
as on the line of axis of dislocation, and to this circumstance 
indebted not only for its chemical composition, but also its 
efflux as a spring at this particular point, since its flow is 
inconsiderable in quantity, and bearing level evidently super- 
ficial. 
