41 
Haddlesey, are the sand, alluvium, and gravel beds of a 
tertiary formation. 
{Since the year 1840, when the Rev. William Thorpe, of 
Womersley, read at Doncaster, on the 2nd December, on the 
occasion of the twelfth quarterly meeting of this Society, his 
valuable and able Paper on “The Agriculture of the West- 
Riding of Yorkshire, considered Geologically/’ twenty-nine 
years ago, perhaps in no previous period of equal duration 
has so great a progress been made, in this division of Dpper 
Osgoldcross, in improved methods of cultivating the land, by 
the application of artificial manures and mechanical contriv- 
ances, and in the pursuit of the study of Geology. The 
railways of this Riding, and more particularly the two 
branches of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway — the lines 
to Goole and Methley, which pass by this town — have chiefly 
been constructed and opened since Mr. Thorpe read his 
Paper ; whilst intimately connected with this railway system 
the coal fields on the west of us promise, through such enter- 
prising mining proprietors as the Messrs. Pope and Pearson ; 
Rhodes and Dalby ; Ellis and Broadbent ; Shaw and Son ; 
and Mr. W. II. Wilks ; in a few more years to change the 
character of Pontefract from a quiet agricultural market 
town to become the centre, and the heart and lungs of an 
important mining district. 
For the future increasing prosperity of this town and 
neighbourhood, we must look upon our coal fields as the 
great material source of power and wealth. In this country 
coal is the great source of power and wealth. The wood of 
England was burnt up long ago, and now there is not timber 
sufficient for the carpenter and the joiner, let alone for house- 
hold use. In fact almost everything we do is done more or 
less by the use of coal : a fact which cannot surprise us if we 
look to what coal is, in its chemical and physical nature. It 
is a kind of spring and store of forces which can be let go 
