CHAPTER VI. MINES AND QUARRIES-COAL, SALT, AND MISCELLANEOUS MINERALS. Importance of COAL-Unknown to the Romans-Early Notices of CoalOpposition to its use-Area of the Deposit-Principal Coal-fields-Economy of a Mine-Extent of Works-Colliers-Their Dangers-Marchioness of Londonderry-Eminent Men from the Collieries-Duration of the Coal-Colliers and their Produce-Consumption of London-Coal Trade of the Thames-SALT-Marston Pit-BLACKLEAD MINE-ALUM WorksPorcelain and Potter's CLAY-Fuller's Earth-SLATE-GRANITE-PORTLAND and its Quarrymen-MAGNESIAN LIMESTONE-ORNAMENTAL LIMESTONE-Total Mineral Produce. We now come to a mineral, the advantages of which it is scarcely possible to over-estimate, for a sufficient supply of fuel ranks with the principal necessaries of life in a chill climate; and had our dependance been upon wood, no conceivable amount of care and attention could have fostered timber adequate to meet the wants of the population. But while in the possession of coal, it has been till recently a costly article in districts distant from the natural places of deposit, owing to the expense of old modes of transport; and no slight benefit has been conferred upon the present generation by the railway system, in extending mineral fuel at a moderate price to such localities. At no remote date it was common with the peasantry in various parts of the kingdom to dry cow-dung in summer as fuel for winter consumption; and carefully did the labourer bear homewards a few sticks from the way side to give cheerfulness and comfort to the domestic hearth. Though the cheapening and general diffusion of mineral fuel is an immense benefaction to the homes of the nation, the value of coal is most strikingly illustrated by its industrial applications, for it supplies the steam-engine with the motive power which puts into action the complicated machinery by which the manufactures are produced, upon which the masses of the people depend for their subsistence, and the country for its greatness. Without coal, steamers would cease to plough the wave; trains would never more travel the railway; our metallic ores would remain unsmelted; and the huge factories would cease work, in which so many thousands earn their daily bread. The Romans paced our coal-fields, but seem to have had no knowledge of the mineral, or at least of its useful properties, during the four centuries they held possession of the country, for no word for coal is found in the Latin language, though it supplies a name for charcoal. One of their great works-the wall which ran across the island from the Solway Firth to the mouth of the Tyne-gave rise to the name of the famous Wallsend coal, originally the produce of collieries towards its eastern termination, but now a general denomination for the best screened coal of the district. The Anglo-Saxons were all acquainted with this species of fuel, and a limited use was made of it at some large monastic establishments. But the necessity for laboriously extracting it from the bowels of the earth did not arise until a much later date, in any part of the kingdom, owing to the vast extent of the forests. As these were encroached upon by clearances of the ground for agriculture, and wood became scarce, the population was driven to have recourse to mineral fuel; and it was an article of commerce in the thirteenth century. In 1239, Henry III. granted a charter for digging coal; in 1279, Newcastle had a considerable coal trade; and in 1291, the monks of Dunfermline obtained a charter conferring upon them the privilege of digging for coal in the neighbourhood of their monastery, which is the earliest mention of the article in the history of Scotland. In the next century it was exported to France; and a duty was levied upon cargoes entering the port of London. Strong opposition was made to the use of the new fuel on the ground of the supposed deleteriousness of the smoke; and royal prohibitions were repeatedly issued to restrain it. But as experience proved the fallacy of the objection, while timber increased in price with its growing scarcity, coal finally secured the ascendency in spite of every obstacle. Camden, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth thus dubiously expresses himself: "The north part of Staffordshire hath coles digged out of the earth, and mines of iron; but whether more for their commoditie or hindrance I leave others to determine who do or shall better understand it." In all our records, to a comparatively recent date, the mineral is mentioned as sea-coal," which shows, that though inland collieries were worked, they sent but a very small supply into the general market, owing to the state of the roads, and imperfect means of communication. Few branches of commerce are now more admirably conducted than the trade in coal, which may always be had at a fair market price. But formerly the public was in a very unprotected state, and unscrupulous dealers resorted to the grossest impositions to enhance their profits, which change of circum stances have rendered impossible. An old pamphlet represents one of the class confessing common tricks of trade: "First," says he, "I give it out by carmen and poor folks, that indeed there was a fleete come of sixty-five or seventy sail almost as far as Harwich; but there rose a violent storm, so that most of the fleete was shipwreckt, and the rest rendered unserviceable to put to sea till next Easter at least. At the report of this, oh how the poor shrug in their shoulders, and pawn their pewter dishes and brasses, and any goods at the brokers, to get some coales in at any rate; and then I vend my worst coales, or mend them with a few good ones." The area occupied by our coal-fields has been estimated as follows: : South of the Tweed, the country is naturally divided into three great districts, northern, central, and western, in relation to its carboniferous deposits. The northern district comprehends the fields north of the Trent, or those of Northumberland and Durham, Whitehaven in Cumberland, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire; the central district comprises the fields of Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Salop; the western district includes the fields of North and South Wales, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. These districts number altogether seventeen coal-fields, reckoning small detached tracts, five of which are of national importance, owing to the extent of their stores, or the amount of their produce. 1. The field of Northumberland and Durham, the earliest wrought, and the first in point of produce, extends about fifty miles from the river Coquet on the north nearly to the Tees on the south, by an average of twenty miles from the coast; and is estimated to contain upwards of eight hundred square miles. Being intersected by two navigable rivers, the Tyne and the Wear, the produce of the collieries is readily brought down to the sea, to be shipped chiefly for the south of England and foreign parts. At the commencement of the trade two ships were sufficient for the business; but in the year 1846, no less than 5,272 vessels cleared out for foreign ports; and 10,488 ships' cargoes were entered for duty in the port of London. The coal is reached at a very varying depth from the surface, disposed in from thirty to forty distinct seams, many of which are too thin to be workable. The two principal beds, each averaging about six feet in thickness, are separated from each other by the perpendicular distance of 360 feet, more than the height of St. Paul's; and are hence called the High Main and the Low Main. The whole number of coal seams are about forty-five feet thick, and the coal measures, which include the separating layers of shale and sandstone, upwards of sixteen hundred feet. No ironstone being associated with the coal in this district, it is almost entirely wrought for sale, and devoted to domestic consumption. 2. The Yorkshire and Derbyshire field ranges from the north-east of Leeds to the neighbourhood of Derby and Nottingham, a distance of more than sixty miles; and is upwards of twenty miles wide in the north, and about twelve miles in the |