COAL°, COLLIERIES, AND THE COAL-TRADE.

THE subjects of this volume are more extensive than the title- page would lead one to imagine : the author not only handles

coal, but all its relations,—commencing with the properties, origin, and uses of fire; diverging to the nature of geological science and its mooted questions ; proceeding thence to peat and the points connected with it ; and, after telling the reader all about the natural history of coal, its probable formation, the manner in which it is found, the method of getting it, &c. ho terminates his labours with a view of the possible exhaustion of his subject, when the sun of England may as well set for ever, as our hearths shall without metaphor ho desolate, from the want of a fire and the coal to light one.

It will be seen from this indication of its contents, that the work is somewhat encycloptodic in its character. Each of the twenty-five chapters is an article, in which the matter is collected with industry, arranged with method, and stated with clearness; but the whole is deficient in the fulness and spirit that practical knowledge and original thought impart. The book, however, is what it professes to be—a compilation; and it may be recom- mended as a complete view of an interesting and nationally im- portant subject.

The most interesting parts of the volume are those which re- late to the collieries, and describe the modes of boring to ascertain the existence of coal, and of sinking the shafts by which ingress and egress are to be gained to the future pit ; as well as the various forms in which the mines are laid out, the processes by- which the coal is obtained; and—last but not least—the dangers to which the miners are subjected, the fatal accidents that have at times occurred, and the means by which they may he partially or wholly prevented. The information upon these points has been derived from original sources, or the inspection of the origi- nals themselves ; and if not perfectly new in every instance, pos- sesses a living interest from the bearing of the facts on the present business of life. We take a few miscellaneous quetations, chiefly from these subjects.

THE DOMESTIC AFFECTIONS IN DEATH.

There is no class of persons, sailors themselves not excepted, who have greater reason to live in constant readiness to encounter sudden death, than the colliers who work in some of our deep and impure mines. The following is a striking illustration of the prevalence of pious sentiments under circumstances of excruciating trial. In one of the Newcastle collieries, thirty-five men and forty-one boys died by suffocation, or were starved to death: one of the boys was found dead with a Bible by his side, and a tin box such as colliers use ; within the lid he had contrived to engrave with the point of a nail this last message to his parent and brother—" Fret not, my dear mother, for we are singing the praises of God while we have time. Mother, follow God, more than ever I did. Joseph, think of God, and be kind to poor mother."

- TASTE OF THE PITMEN.

Most of the old pitmen had a taste for expensive furniture, a taste still in- dulged by many; and it would be impossible for a stranger to pass in front of the lowly dwellings, three or four hundred in number, adjacent to Jarrow Col- liery, for example, without being struck by the succession of carved mahogany bedposts and tall chest of drawers, as well as chairs of the same costly material, which are presented at almost every open door : it is affirmed, indeed, that some of these mean-looking' habitations do not contain a single article in wood of any

other kind. • • • In their dress, the pitmen, singularly enough, often affect to be gaudy, or rather they did so formerly ; being fond of clothes of flaring colours. Their holyday waistcoats, called by them poseyjackets, were frequently of very curious patterns, displaying flowers of various dyes ; their stockings mostly of blue, purple, pink, or mixed colours. A great part of them used to have their hair very long, which on work-days was either tied in a queue, or rolled up in curls; but when drest in their best attire it was commonly spread over their shoulders. Some of them wore two or three narrow ribands round their hats, placed at equal distances, in which it was customary with them to insert one or more bunches of primroses or other flowers. Perhaps it will strike a stranger, ow passing along the streets of Newcastle on a Sunday or holyday, that the better sort of the inhabitants are partial to posies or flowers.

BETTY AND DOGGET.

In some parts of Staffordshire, the working of a colliery is undertaken con. jointly by two men, provincially termed Buttg and Doggey. When a person,

owning a tract of coal wishes to work it without actual personal direction or superintendence, lie sends for the parties above-named, who contract to get and raise the coal at a royalty of one fourth, fifth, or sixth of the proceeds of sale, according to agreement; the owner putting down the plant," i. e. finding the machinery ; so that the undertakers have no property but their labour in the " plantation." The Butty, who is generally the manager of the concern, as representative of the owner, rarely descends the shaft, while the Hogg( y takes the entire and absolute direetion of all the underground operations. These cocontractors are often liberally remunerated, and sometimes amass consi- derable property, particularly the former, who are also proverbial for their obesity ; a Butty and a man with a great belly being terms nearly synonymous among the Staffordshire colliers. When found unsatisfactory, or suspected of dishonesty, they may be " valued out," as it is termed, by a competent reference, —the owner in this case paying what may be judged a reasonable bonus to the party displaced.

INUNDATION OF A MINE.

On the 20th of June 1833, while Mr. Montgomery, banker, in Irvine, and another gentleman, were engaged in fishing on the river Garnock, nearly oppo- site to where they were standing, a slight eruption took place in the current of the river, which they at first supposed to be occasioned by the leap of a salmon; but the gurgling motion which succeeded led them to suppose that somethiog serious had occurred, and that the river had hi oken into the coal-mines which surrounded the place on which they stood. They immediately hastened to the nearest pit-mouth, and stated their suspicions ; which the pit headman at first was slow to believe, and it was only after Mr. Montgomery had strongly re- monstrated with him that he at length prepared to avert the danger. By this. time, however, the men below had heard the rushing forward of the water, anti were making the best of their way to the bottom of the shaft ; but before they had reached it several were up to their necks in water, and in two minutes more, it was believed, every one of them would have been drowned. Immediately on the whole of the men being got out of the pits, Mr. Dodds, the active manager• of the works, assembled all his men at the cavity in the bed of the river, over which they placed a coal-lighter, laden with such things as they thought calcu- lated to stop the rush of the water, as straw, whirrs, clay, arc. ; all their efforts, however, proved unavailing, for the water continued to pour into the mines without obstruction, producing comparatively very little agitation on the sur- face of the river until the following afternoon, when a tremendous large space broke down, which in a short time engulfed the whole body of the stream, leav- ing the bed of the river quite dry for more than a mile on each side of the aper- ture, where there had previously been a depth of fully six feet. At this time the fishes in the channel were seen leaping about i i every direction. On the flowing of the tide, the depth of the water betwixt the chasm and the sea in- creased to about nine feet—then the desolation was awful ! The long sweep and prodigious quantity of water rushing into the chasm at this time made the- sight impressive beyond description. Three men, who were in a boat near the spot, had a very narrow escape from being sucked into the vortex ; for no sooner had the men got out than the boat was drawn down with fearful rapidity. The great body of water continued to pour down the chasm, until the whole work- ings of the pits, which extend for many miles, were completely filled ; after which the river gradually assumed its natural appearance, and the water attained its ordinary level. At this time the pressure in the pits became so great, from the immense weight of water impelled into them, that the confined air, which

had been forced back into the high workings, burst through the surface of the earth, in a thousand places, and many acres of ground were to be seen all at once bub-

bling up like the boiling of a cauldron. In some places the current was so impetu- ous as to form cavities four or five feet in diameter, and produced a roaring noise, like the escape of steam from an overcharged boiler. Immense quantities of sand and water were thrown up like showers of rain during five hours ; and in the course of a short time the whole of Bartonholme, Longford, Snodgrass, and Nethermains, were laid under water ; by which calamity from five to six hun- dred persons, men, women, and children, were entirely deprived of employment. By this unfortunate occurrence the extensive colliery works in question were in- jured to an extent which almost precludes the hope of their ever being restored to their former state.

WAT.LSEND.

\Whew], so called, as being the spot where the celebrated wall of Sevens terminated on the Northern bank of the Tyne, a few miles below Newcastle, has, in modern times, been chiefly known as the site of a colliery yielding the most valuable description of coal. So important, indeed, is the appellation in the market, that, although the high main seam which afforded the original coal has long been worked our, the designation hes not only continued to be applied to some one or other sort, as the best, but to several sorts which the dealers wish to recommend.

A BUNCH OF FACTS.

In 1827, the immense steam-engines erected by Captain Grose, in Cornwall, were raising upwards of sixty-one millions of pounds one foot high, by the con- sumption of a single bushel of coal ; and since then it has been stated, that owing to the more effective working of steam, on what is termed "the expansive principle," that quantity of fuel is made to raise eighty-seven millions of pounds one foot high ! That, however, is a ratio far above the average result ; 55,000,00016s. lifted one foot high by each bushel of coals consumed, will be nearer the actual result in practice. In 1832, there were sixty-four steam- engines in Cornwall, four of them the largest ever made: at that time the consumption of coal at these engines was 84,000 bushels per month, or 2,800 per day : the effect of the steam generated by the combustion of this fuel in draining the mines, was reckoned to be equal to the work of 44,000 horses.

Amstar. FUEL.

Animal matter is sometimes, though rarely, used as fuel. The Arabs, how- ever, who dwell in that part of their country bordering on Egypt, must be re- garded as ffirming in some degree an exception to the remark ; for they draw no inconsiderable portion of the fuel with which they cook their victuals from the exhaustless mummy-pits so often described by travellers. The extremely dry state of the bodies, and the inflammable nature of the matters with which they have apparently been saturated during the process of embalming, render them exceedingly convenient for the above purpose. We have a still more striking instance: wood was formerly so scarce at Buenos Ayres, and cattle SO plentiful, that sheep were actually driven into the furnaces of lime-kilns, in order to answer the purposes of fuel. This fact could hardly have been men- tioned as credible, however undoubted, if a decree of the King of Spain prohi- biting this barbarous custom, were not still preserved in the archives of Buenos Ayres. It has been intimated that one point discussed by the author is the probable exhaustion of the English mines : and,. takiag the affirmative view of the question, he seconds the opinion of Wee who maintain that the exportation of coal should be for- bidden. It is replied by the coal-owners, that the sole effect of this prohibition would be to force the working of foreign pits, and prematurely to stimulate all foreign manufactures, when the pro- duction of the article depends on a cheap supply of fuel ; nor do they forget to urge that the English mines are practically inex- haustible. Without attaching undue weight to the first points, they are yet worth the consideration of the present age and its immediate posterity; and although our coals may be capable of exhaustion, it appears to be at so remote an cora, that long before its arrival the whole circumstances of the world may be changed. According to Mr. TAYLOR, the intelligent colliery-agent of the Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND, and himself an owner, the coal strata of the Northern counties will not be exhausted, at the present rate of Consumption, for 1727 years. Professor SEDGE- VicK thinks this estimate exaggerated by one half; and sub- sequently, on some information derived from a correspondent, reduces the time to 900 years; with which calculation that of Mr. BAKEWELL the geologist nearly coincides. But the same writer calculates that the coals of \Vales are capable of supplying us for 2000 years ; after which, there are Scotch and Irish strata to resort to. It has been seen in a passage already quoted, that one scientific improvement has economized the consumption of fuel by a fourth; and it is more than probable that discoveries of a similar kind will be made, especially when there is a necessity for making them. Putting these facts and conjectures together, we may be considered safe for three or four thousand years. If the Millennium should not have arrived by that time, we must have recourse to North America, whose coal-fields would cover more than the half of Europe. It is true, the freight must be paid for, which will be a slight additional burden upon our manu- factures; but, as coals during the period of the high duties were sold cheaper in Grand Cairo than in London, and yet the London manufacturers bore up under it, the manufacturers of Anno Domini 5035 may, we trust, be able to struzgle with the expenses of a voyage from America to Liverpool. For ourselves, we arc tormented by a much more grievous trouble than the loss of coal —we are anxious about the future purity of the air we breathe. Looking at the certain increase of population, it is to be feared that their numberless lungs will abstract a continually increasing quantity of oxygen from the atmosphere, and replace it by a cor- responding amount of carbonic acid ; whilst the thinning of the woods, consequent upon the numbers of the people, will destroy the vegetation Which was wont to reconvert the carbon into oxygen. Hence, we anticipate a period when a catastrophe as awful as the Deluge shall occur, and the inhabitants of the globe be choked by a mephitic atmosphere of their own creation.