THIC KM'.SS OF COAL I!EDS.' 52.0 
I am relieved from the necessity of entering 
oito details respecting the history of the Coal 
F’ields of our own country, by the excellent 
Summary of what is known upon this interesting 
subject, which has recently been given in a judi- 
cious and M'ell selected anonymous publication, 
entitled yVic Ilislory and Uescription of Fossil 
fuel, the Collieries, and Coal Trade of Great 
frilain- London, 1855 . 
The most remarkable accumulations of this 
iinportant vegetable production in England are 
lu the Wolverhampton and Dudley Coal Field, 
(Pi. 65 , Fig. 1,) where there is a bed of coal, ten 
yards in thickness. The Scotch Coal field near 
Paisley presents ten beds, whose united thick- 
ness is one hundred feet. And the South Welsh 
Poal Basin (PI. 65 , Fig. 2,) contains, near Ponty- 
pool, twenty-three beds of coal, amounting toge- 
ther to ninety-three feet. 
In many Coal fields, the occurrence of rich 
^ieds of iron ore in the strata of slaty clay, that 
alternate with the beds of coal, has rendered the 
adjacent districts remarkable as the site of most 
•uiportant Iron foundries ; and these localities, 
ns we have before stated, (p. 65 ,) usually present 
n further practical advantage, in having beneath 
^he Coal and Iron ore, a substratum of Limestone, 
supplies the third material required as a 
flux to reduce this ore to a metallic state. 
Our section, PI. 65 , Fig. 1, illustrates the re- 
G. 
M M 
