FORMATION OF THE SOCIETY : UNPUBLISHED RECORDS. 33 
Mr. Hartop's paper on tlie great heave in the valley of the Don, 
describes a dislocation of the strata of enormous extent and of very- 
great interest. 
In the Polytechnic department, Mr. Embleton and Mr. Briggs 
have exhibited and explained the Safety fuse and Iron ropes : the 
former of which has been for some time in use in Cornwall, and the 
latter have recently been introduced abroad. 
In this branch also, two communications have been made on the 
important subjects of ventilation and the safety lamp. Both of 
these came from strangers, one from a gentleman who, from 
philanthropic motives alone, had turned his attention to the pre- 
vention of accident from fire-damp. It is one of the advantages of 
this Institution, that it offers an opportunity for speculative and 
ingenious men to make known their various plans for the improvement 
of the art of mining. It will ever be the wish of the Society to 
receive such suggestions with attention, and to discuss them with 
candour. 
Since the establishment of this Society, one having precisely 
the same objects, has been formed in the neighbouring county of 
Lancaster. It wiU be the interest of both Societies to maintain a 
constant and friendly intercourse, and the proceedings and investiga- 
tions of each Society may be expected to throw light on the inquiries 
of the other." 
At the same meeting Mr. T. W. Embleton read a paper on 
the strata between the Bradford Rock and the Forty Yards Coal at 
Middleton, and Mr. Henry Hartop communicated one on a new 
mode of judging High Pressure Boilers. The paper by Mr. 
Embleton was illustrated by a number of specimens of the rocks 
passed through in sinking a shaft from the surface to the first work- 
able coal in the Middleton Colliery, and confirmed the observations 
made by Mr. Henry Briggs, which were the subject of a paper com- 
municated to the society at a previous meeting. The author insists 
on a careful comparison, not only of the several beds of shale sand- 
stone or coal composing sections in various localities, but also of the 
fossils usually found in the roof of the coal. Notwithstanding the 
most careful examinations mistakes were liable to arise, and many 
D 
