[ 53 s ] 
This coal eafily breaks tranfverfely, and the feparated 
parts, inftead of being rugged and uneven, are ge- 
nerally fmooth and fhining, in which even the courle 
of the laminae is hardly difcernable. 
They dig this coal in an open pit, together with 
the clay that is mixed with it ; and though it lies very 
clofe and compact in its original bed, yet it is fo eafily 
feparated, that they can afford to fell it for half a 
crown a ton at the pit. The i mailer coal is leparated 
from the clay by a fkreen, or grated fhovel ; the 
larger, which riles fometimes in pieces of above an 
hundred weight, is piled up by hand. There is hardly 
any other ufe made of it at prefent, but to bake the 
earthen ware of a manufacture ereCted at South- 
Bovey, and for burning of limeftone, which riling in 
great quantities at the neighbouring town of Chud- 
leigh, the coal is carried thither, and they return 
with limeftone to the pit ; which they burn theie, foi 
the ufe of the northern parilhes, to whom it lies more 
convenient than the kilns of Chudleigh. 
The fire made by this coal is more or lefs ftrong 
and lafting, according to its different veins: thole 
which lie neareft tp the clay, having a greater mixture 
of earth, burn heavily, leaving a large quantity of 
brownifh allies ; that, which they call the wood coal, 
is faid to make as ftrong a fire as oaken billets, efpe- 
cially if it be let on edge, fo that the fire, as it afcends, 
may infinuate itfelf between, and feparate the laminae. 
But that of the ftone coal is accounted moft ftiong 
and durable, being apparently more folid and heavy, 
and probably alfo more ftrongly impregnated with bi- 
tumen. One of the proprietors of this coal made an 
experiment of burning it in the fire-engines of Corn- 
