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268 
reft clunch at the place of separation, 
which clunch assumes a harder texture, 
and at last is changed to a rock that 
strikes fire with steel. 
Of the measures below the main coal. 
The measures which are generally 
known under the main coal, which in 
some places are dug for the sake of the 
iron stone, and glass-house poteclay, and 
sometimes for the vein ef coal called 
heathing-coal, are as follows: 
yards feet inch 
4 Dark clunch generally about 0 1 6 
2 Light coloured clay, with 
smal! round iron one, t 0.2.4 
called white grains 
3 Main iron stone mine, 
which is iron stone balls 
or nodules, involved in$ 1 O 9O 
clunch.Ofthis mine there 4 
are 3 distinct measures 
-& Table batt, a smooth le- 
| 220. 0 
vel-faced schistus _ 
5 White Sag. containing| 5 4 ¢ 
white iron stone . 
6 Heathing coal, in three Big” 6 
distinct layers 
7 Measures of clunch and. white rock, 
to the pot-clay, which is about sixteen 
or twenty yards below the main coal, 
at the lye where it is principally got, 
the clay being there nearer the surface 
of the ground, and of a better quality, 
than in most other places which have 
beentried. This is the clay which takes 
its name from Stourbridge, its nearest 
town; and from its quality of resisting 
violent heat without melting, or even 
losing its strength and form, and conse- 
quent fitness for makiag pots to contain 
melted glass, is the principal cause of the 
establishment of a very considerable ma- 
nufactory of the various kinds of glass, 
flint, bottle, and window glass, in the 
vicinity of Stourbridge, and in the town 
of Dudley. 
Nothing is generally known under the 
above-mentioned measures, the work of 
the miners never having proceeded fur- 
ther. But an opportunity was given a 
few years ago, of discovering all the in- 
termediate strata between the main 
coal, and the lime-stone,_by the late 
Lord Dudley and Ward, who ordered 
a canal to be made from Topton Green, 
to his lime-quarries in Dudley Castle- 
hill, which passed under a part of the 
lime-stone hill. By this. very consider- 
able undertaking, all these intermediate 
strata were cut through, as they were 
cropping up to the hill, and were ob- 
= 
Mineralogy of the South West of Staffordshire. [Oct.1, - 
served to lie in the following order and — 
thickness. * 
Measures under the main coal to the 
lime-stone. 
“yards feet inch 
1 Clunch-and iron stone a ee 
2 Heathing coal = Be 
3 Pot clay - 2-0 .0 
4 Wald measures aes ee eae Ce 
§ Good coal = io oe oe 
6 Rough spoil . 2. 8: 0 
7 Good coal = eh vin 
8 Black measures.” = Or ee.G 
9 Coal =" : | ar 
10 Wild measures = 40 0 QO 
41 Coazk::* - = Go... 2 > G 
12 Wild measures - 1a 2 0 
13 Lime-stone - Te 6 
14 Wild measures . - 38 °0 O 
15 Lime-stone of the quarry 13 0 O 
From the above account, which I have 
no doubt is near the truth, though per-. 
haps not minutely distinctive in the term 
of wild measures, it appears that thete 
are under the heathing coal no less than 
four beds of coal, making in all a thick~ 
ness of about twelve yards. I have al- 
ready suggested my opinion, that these 
are the beds of coal, which are found and 
worked in a considerable tract of country 
that extends northwards, from Bilstone, 
Wednesbury, and Darlaston, towards 
Walsall, and along the Wyerley and 
Epington canal. My reason for this 
opinion is, that the main-coal rises then 
towards the ‘north, and crops out at 
the three towns above-mentioned, Bil« 
stone, Wednesbury, and Darlaston, after 
which it is no longer found in that di-- 
rection, but a few miles beyond these 
towns, the thin beds of coal begin to be 
found rising in the same northern direc- 
tion, and accordingly give all the indi- 
cation that the subject admits, that the 
are continued from below the main Saale 
The same thin beds have sometimes 
been found in the interval, between the 
cropping of the main coal, and the Dud~- 
ley lime-stone hilis, but are little noticed, 
as being of small value in comparison 
with the main coal. However, as I 
thought they must exist there, 1 made 
inquiry, and was informed that they had 
been found sometimes, and in one in- 
stance worked, but that the colliers mis- 
took them for the thin coals which lie 
above the main coal. \ 
+. (To be continued in our next. ) fe 
* The list of these intermediate stratay 
between the main,coal and the lime-stone, 
was furnished by Mr. Hurst, agent to Lord” 
Dudley, who superintended the work, 
1 Te 
