TEW: EXTEXSIOX OF MINING OPEEATIONS. 
91 
iiarrowue.ss of the bounds within which it6 increasing famihes are 
enclosed, and to the cheapness and abundance of the coal. 
According to Mr. Lupton, coal is workable at a depth of 5,000 
or 10,000 feet but the temperature of the earth at a depth of 
1)80 3^ards will be equal to blood he^t, and if tlie miners have to 
l^enetrate another 500 yards "Mineral substances will be too hot 
for the naked skin to touch with impunity." Under such condi- 
tions science and mechanics will, I have no doubt, render the 
conditions of human labom' at these depths quite possible ; and 
although it would appear that our new coal fields lie at great 
depths below the sm^face of the ground, I feel sure that whenever 
circumstances requue it, coal will be raised from gTeater depths 
than 5,000 or 10,000 feet, whilst new beds w^ill be discovered as 
yet undreamed of. Therefore, in my humble opinion, many of the 
conclusions of the Royal Commission w^ere founded on insufficient 
data. 
We must, 1 think, thr(j\v off, fmther away than ever, the 
question of the exhaustion of the British Coal fields, and the 
prospect of national ruin. 
But if Leland could live again, and realise the dimensions of 
the industry his " Yearth Cole " has achieved from his day to 1882, 
he might feel inclined to w^rite a new Itinery w^ith reference to 
coal. 
On the 25th Feb., 186'J, the Haigh Moor Bed of the Mere- 
field Colliery, at GHass Houghton, was struck at 347 yards 
from the surface of the gi'ound, and the coal was found to be 4 
feet 7 inches in thickness, with one dirt parting of three inches in 
the middle of the seam. This Colliery is now in working order, 
and is capable of turning out upwards of 1,000 tons of coal in 
24 hours. 
At a depth of 280 yards from the surface, salt water, much 
Salter than that of the sea, is fomid ; specific gravity 1-082 com- 
pared with fresh water : temperature GO degrees of Fahrenheit's 
thermometer : four fluid ounces on evaporation leave a residue 
