464 
COAL. 
feet ; but of these beds there are only two or three 
that are worth the trouble of working. 
The principal mines of this useful mineral in 
England are those of Newcastle and Whitehaven. 
The town of Newcastle absolutely stands on beds of 
coal, which extend to a considerable distance round 
the place. There are seven or eight beds of this 
mineral, one above the other, and all inclined in a 
south-east direction ; the lowest is a hundred fa- 
thoms from the surface of the earth. But the 
mines near Whitehaven, which have been described 
by Nicholson and Burn, in the History of Cumber- 
land, will afford the best idea of these wonderful 
places. We learn from this account, that 44 these 
coal-mines are, perhaps, the most extraordinary of 
any in the known world. The principal entrance 
for men and horses is by an opening at the bottom 
of a hill, through a long passage hewn in the rock ; 
which, by a steep descent, leads down to the lowest 
vein of coal. The greatest part of this descent is 
through spacious galleries, which continually inter- 
sect each other ; all the coal being cut away, ex- 
cept large pillars, which, in deep parts of the mine, 
are three yards high, and twelve square at the base. 
The mines are sunk to the depth of a hundred and 
thirty fathoms, and are extended under the sea to 
places where, above them, the water is of sufficient 
depth for ships of large burthen. These are the 
deepest coal-mines that have hitherto been wrought; 
and perhaps the miners have not in any other part 
