106 
COAL MINES OF JELEZNOE OR NIKITOFKA. 
West Northumberland. The lowest beds are about two feet three inches thick, 
the second and third seams about three feet each ; these are separated by clunch, 
clay and shale, and a little sandstone. The fourth seam is about two feet four 
inches thick, and is surmounted by a coarse, pebbly grit. This is followed by 
an impure grey limestone, containing Encrini and Producti, alternating with grit 
and sandstone, which is succeeded by another band of limestone, in which we found 
a few Fusulinm, and a great thickness of shale, the latter being capped by a ledge 
of coarse, pebbly sandstone, forming the roof of the sixth or uppermost coal ob- 
servable in this section. 
By pacing across the strata from the lowest, which are exposed on the high 
ground, to the uppermost ledge which rises from the bank of the Jeleznaia, our 
rough estimate gave a thickness of about 1200 yards, in which space the hard 
rocks form little ridges, slightly protruding through the slopes of long grass, the 
shales having been worn into depressions. The strike of the beds is from west- 
north-west to east-south-east, and the dip to the south-south-west, the angle in- 
creasing gradually from 40° near the rivulet, to 55° and 80° as you ascend the hill 
to the last bed worked, is marked by piles of coal recently extracted. The upper- 
most coal is the best and most solid, but as it lies in the lowest position, the 
peasants have not been able to follow it in their rude works, on account of the 
influx of water. 
The best and hardest beds, or those upon the dip, having soon plunged beyond 
the reach of the natives, who employ neither engines nor adits to dry their shallow 
mines, (in this country, indeed, they can with difficulty obtain sufficient wood 
even to support the roofs,) the two lowest seams only have been latterly worked in 
this locality. The same beds are explored by the peasantry in other localities 
(which we did not visit), whenever a favourable outcrop tempts them to employ 
their spare hours in thus procuring fuel 1 . Though most of the coal lying at the 
mounds was of the broken and small character which in the English northern 
coal-fields would be consumed for steam, or sold for waste, we had little doubt, 
judging from a few of the fragments, that, by deep works and an improved system 
of mining, better coal might be obtained, although it is improbable that such thick 
masses of the mineral will ever be discovered in this tract, as have been pro- 
1 At the period of our visit (September), the harvest and autumnal sowing having been long finished 
the peasants were employing their spare teams of oxen in transporting coal from the adjacent pits 
