GILLIGAN : ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS AT WOODLESFORD, ETC. 257 
Railway, and run parallel with the railway at a distance of 150 yards. 
It was, therefore, possible to draw a line east of which no further 
subsidence might be expected. This question of subsidence due to 
coal workings was of great importance, because of the desirability of 
having good foundations for the surface equipment, especially head- 
gears, winding engines and boiler chimne3^ The next point was so to 
fix the site in this stable area that the curves to the main line and 
canal would be suitable for the traffic, and so that the minimum amount 
of embanking and excavating would be necessary to lay down empty, 
screen, and full sidings. This led to a line parallel with the Midland 
Railway being fixed. West of this line no surface buildings were 
permitted, and no embankments higher than the present Midland 
Railway embankment. 
The consideration of all these questions fixed the line for the shafts 
and for the sidings along which the gravitation from north-west to 
south-east was decided on. In this way an embankment became 
necessary on the north-west end of the site, and a large excavation at 
the south-east end. It was in the making of this excavation, and in 
excavating the soft ground on the north-west to build up the embank- 
ment, that the extensive sections in the alluvium were exposed. These 
points in connection with the choice of the site have been rather fully 
dealt with as affording an excellent illustration of the importance of 
Geology to the mining engineer in all his undertakings, even before 
a sod had been turned. 
The wovk was carried out under the direction of Mr. Isaac Hodges, 
F.G.S., and most of the information contained in the above description 
was obtained trom Prof. R. L. Hummel, who was at that time engaged 
on this work. The first step was to put down a borehole to strike a 
road in the Haigh Moor seam from Spencer Colliery. The object was 
to test the accuracy of the plan of the workings, to prove the strata 
down to this depth and to gain some knowledge of the quantity of 
water which would be met with in the sinking. The borehole passed 
through alluvium, and then filled with water, but boring was continued 
until the underground road was pierced, when the water poured down 
into it and the hole was then plugged up. Digging operations on 
the shaft site soon revealed the nature of the material making up the 
alluvium in much surer fashion than the borehole had done. At No, 
2 shaft, the section record was : — 
