530 IRON ASSOCIATED WITH COAL. 
suit of these geological conditions in enriching 
an important district in the centre of England, 
near Birmingham, with a continuous succession 
of Coal mines, and Iron foundries. A similar 
result has followed from the same causes, on the 
north-east frontier of the enormous Coal basin of 
South Wales, in the well-known Iron foundries, 
near Pontypool and Merthyr Tydfil,* (See PI- 
do. Fig. ’2.) The beds of shale in the lower re- 
• In the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Nor- 
thumberland, Durham, and Newcastle, vol. i. p. 114, it is stated 
by Mr. Forster, that the quantity of iron annually manufactured 
in Wales is about 270,000 tons, of which about three-fourths are 
made into bars, and one-fourth sold as pigs and castings. The 
quantity of coal required for its manufacture will be about five 
tons and a half, for each ton of iron. The annual consumption 
of coals by the iron works will therefore be about 1,500,000 tons. 
The quantity used in the smelting of copper ore imported from 
Cornwall, in the manufacture of tin plate, forging of iron for 
various purposes, and for domestic uses, may be calculated at 
.350,000 tons, which makes altogether the annual consumption 
of coal in Wales 1,850,000 tons. The quantity of iron manu- 
factured in Great Britain in the year 1827 was 690,000 tons. 
The production of this immense quantity was thus distributed. 
Staffordshire 
TONS. 
. . 216,000 . 
FURNACES. 
. 95 
Shropshire . 
. . 78,000 . 
. 31 
S. Wales . 
. . 272,000 
. 90 
N. Wales . 
. . 24,000 
. 12 
Yorkshire 
. . 43,000 
. 24 
Derbyshire . 
. . 20,500 
. 14 
Scotland . . 
. . 36,500 
. 18 
690,000 
284 
