22 FORMATION OF THE SOCIETY : UNPUBLISHED RECORDS. 
suggesting as an interesting object of inquiry, tlie correspondence of 
the coal seams in this neighbourhood, with those in the southern 
part of Yorkshire ; and, at the same time, hazarded a few conjectures 
on this head, in order that the curiosity of the members of the Society 
might be excited to further investigation, the result of which might 
be brought forward at some future meeting. Mr. Briggs also mentioned 
having met with a spring of mineral water at about 100 yards from 
the surface, in boring at Newton, near Castleford ; a small quantity 
of which had been analyzed by Mr, Dawson, the chemist of Wakefield, 
who, from 2 ounces of the water, had obtained 18 j grains of chloride 
of sodium, or common salt, w^ith a small admixture of magnesia and 
lime. 
Mr. Morton, of Newmarket, then made some observations on 
Mr. Briggs' paper. He alluded to the commonly received notion that 
the Middleton coal is the same bed as the Haigh Moor coal, and con- 
sidered it of importance that the truth or falsity of this opinion 
should be investigated. For this purpose he exhibited three surface 
sections. The first taken in a N.W. direction from the lawns near 
Ardsley to the West Pit at Middleton, showing the rapid rise to the 
north of the Haigh Moor coal, and its outbreak on Ardsley Common ; 
and he contended that the measures further to the north were the 
Middleton measures, dipping southward under the Haigh Moor, or 
Ardsley measures. The second section, in a N.E. direction from 
Ardsley to the Victoria Pit, on Rothwell Haigh, exhibited the basset 
of the Haigh Moor coal, near Thorp, and that of the great quarry- 
stone beneath, which forms the upper stratum of the Robin Hood and 
Rothwell Haigh collieries. This section crosses the great fault that 
separates the Lofthouse from the Robin Hood colliery. It has hitherto 
been considered a downcast fault to the east, throwing the Haigh 
Moor coal dow^n to the level of the IMiddleton coal. Mr. Morton stated 
that there is no evidence to support this assumption ; but, on the 
contrary, the head or leader of the fault is that of an upcast to the 
east, and Mr. Morton opinion is that instead of the fault in question 
having depressed the Haigh Moor measures about 120 yards, as 
previously supposed, it has elevated the Middleton measures in an 
easterly direction. The third section commenced near the River 
