The South Staffordshire Coalfield/Chapter 6

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The South Staffordshire Coalfield
by Joseph Beete Jukes

Chapter 6

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2797300The South Staffordshire Coalfield — Chapter 6Joseph Beete Jukes

Relation of the Coals, 5c, of Wyrley and Essington to the Red coal-measure elays.—We might look upon the red measures in the upper part of the Longhouse section as being the bottom of the Red clays of the coal-measures, if it were not for the fact that they come in at a height of only 168 feet above the Old Robins coal, while in the Essington colliery there is a thickness of 252 feet of true coal-measures over that coal, with beds of coal and clunch and fire-clay throughout, and without the appearance of any red clays except those which are undoubtedly superficial or drift materials. It is probable then that the red beds at Longhouse belonged to the New red sandstone, and that the shaft was sunk through the boundary fault which inclined obliquely across it.

CHAPTER VI.

Description of the Rocks—continued.

Detailed Description of the Coal-measures.

1. Beds above the Upper Sulphur coal, including the Halesowen sandstones and the Red Coal-measure clays.

Wherever the bed known as the Upper Sulphur coal is mentioned in the pit sections, it is found to lie about 300 feet above the Thick coal, and about half that distance above the Two-foot or Little coal. The Upper Sulphur coal is mentioned in most of the pit sections in the latitude of Dudley, from Great Bridge to Kingswinford.

At the Trough pits near Burnt Tree it is 343 feet above the Thick coal, but this thickness diminishes as we come south to about 290 at Corbyn's Hall and Wordesley Bank.

Farther south still, towards Corngreaves and the Hawne the Upper Sulphur coal seems to disappear, but the Two-foot continues, lying at a height of about 150 feet over the Thick coal at Congreaves, at the Old Lion colliery, and at a pit a little north of the Sleek Hillock formerly worked by Mr. Mills.

We may conclude, therefore, that the Two-foot coal will retain this position over all the southern portion of the field, and that the place of the Upper Sulphur coal (whether it be present or absent) will never exceed a height of about 300 feet above the top of the Thick coal.

1a. Halesowen Sandstones.—There are beds, however, in which at least one coal occurs, which are much above this height over the Thick coal. A little bed of coal is to be seen in a small ravine nearly due east of Ham House near Old Swinford, in the brooks running down from Lutley to Lutley Mill, in the brooks in Uffmoor Wood, and Mr. Mathews, of the Leasowes, informed me that he came upon a similar little coal in some excavations in the Leasowes demesne. Mr. Richards also formerly sank at Wassel Grove, and passed through two little coals, one of four inches and the other eighteen inches thick. Now the rocks associated with these little coals are principally olive green, brownish, and yellowish sandstones, sometimes pebbly or conglomeritic; and this sandstone group stretches all across the southern portion of the coal-field by Prescott and Wollescote and Careless Green. Wassel Grove. Upper and Lower Lutley. Halesowen, and the Leasowes, and caps the hills of High Haden. Homer Hill, and Cradley Park.

This sandstone group seems to have a thickness of not less than 200 or 300 feet, and from underneath it there appear red and green and mottled clays likewise of considerable thickness, as may be seen by the spoil banks of the pits on the north side of Gosty Hill, and thence at various places north of those just mentioned to Cradley and the Lye Waste and Hay Green.

The little coal or coals which are to be seen high up in the sandstone group have sometimes been spoken of as if they were the representative of the Upper Sulphur, or the Two-foot, or even the Brooch coals. It may be shown by the following facts that this cannot be the case, and that the coal of Wassel Grove, and the other places mentioned above, is far higher above the Thick coal than even the Upper Sulphur coal.

At Mr. Attwood's colliery at Hawn the depth of the shaft to the bottom of the Thick coal is 255 yards = 765 feet; but as the beds dip south at the rate of 3 inches in a yard, and they have driven a "gate-road " in that direction 450 yards without meeting any fault or change of dip, the end of the gate-road must be 112 feet below the bottom of the shaft. But inasmuch as the surface of the ground rises rapidly to the south, while the beds fall, that rise being at least 100 feet in the 450 yards, we get over the head of the gate-road a thickness of beds above the Thick coal of not less than 977 feet.^[1] Let us, then, suppose the beds to be absolutely horizontal from the end of the gate-road to Hasbury Hill, south-west of Halesowen, which those near the surface certainly are for the greater part of the distance, we must still add another 70 feet for the total rise of ground from Hawn to Highfields. Hasbury,^[2] when we shall have a thickness of at least 1,000 feet between the uppermost beds seen there and the top of the Thick coal.

The details of the beds passed through in the Hawn shaft are not known, but the high ground on all sides of it is composed of greenish brown sandstone, dipping generally at a very gentle angle to the south. In the lane leading from Hawn to Gosty Hill, these sandstones are conglomeritic, and many of the pebbles consist of fragments of trap, not, however, of basalt or greenstone, but of brown and purple porphyry (or felstone) very like some of those so abundant in the Permian rocks of the Clent Hills. It appears, therefore, that fragments of such rocks began to be drifted from some rather distant locality even during the Coal-measure period.

These beds and those quarried near Halesowen are probably below the sandstones of Luticy and Wassel Grove, in which the little beds of coal before mentioned occur, for the places where these coals occur are both further south and on higher ground than that round Hawn and Halesowen.

Mr. G. Thompson, formerly manager of the British Iron Company's Works at Corngreaves, communicated the following section of the pit sunk at Wassel Grove.

		FT.	IN.
1.	Sand rock and other rocks	123	0
2.	Blue rock-binds	4	0
3.	Sand rock	38	0
4.	Little coal	0	4
5.	Blue rock with black shades	5	0
6.	Grey peldon	0	8
7.	Rock binds	2	0
8.	Rough mingled rock	13	0
9.	Blue rock	4	0
10.	Fire-clay	6	0
11.	Soft white rock	13	0
12.	Bind measures with two ironstone bands	4	0
13.	Coal	1	6
14.	Fire-clay	4	0
15.	White rock	15	0
16.	Mingled ground with binds	5	0
17.	Rock with sheds (bored into)	45	0
		283	6

From the preceding considerations it is scarcely possible that the place of the Thick coal can be at a less depth than 800 or 900 feet (say 300 yards) beneath Wassel Grove, and all the line of country mentioned before where these little upper coals are observed to crop out.

1b. Red Coal-measure Clays.—These facts are represented in Horizontal Section No. 10, sheet 25, which was taken over Hasbury Hill, where there is a capping of red rock believed to be Permian, and thence across Hawn to the Old Lion colliery. In the latter shaft (of which a vertical section is given on Sheet 18 of the Vertical Sections. No. 25) there are about 50 or 60 feet of dark and grey rocks at the top containing a little nine-inch coal, underneath which come about 280 feet (or 93 yards) of red and blue marls, interstratified with ' blue ground," "blue rock," and "mottled ground," many of the so-called blues being rather green than blue, but the predominating colour of the whole a deep purplish red. The bottom of this red group is about 233 feet (or 77 yards) above the Thick coal. A similar group of red and blue beds, mostly clays, but sometimes sandy, is noted in the sections at Congreaves and Baremoor. Red and blue mingled ground is mentioned in the Barrow Hill pit (No. 23. Sheet 18, of Vertical Sections,) in the shafts about Corbyns Hall, at Wordesley Bank, and almost wherever a detailed section is given of the beds lying 100 yards or so above the Thick coal in the southern part of the district.

North of Dudley, again, in the Trough pits at Burnt Tree, where the Thick coal is 617 feet deep, the upper 360 feet are said to consist largely of "mottled ground," "mingled ground," "blue and mingled ground," the " mottling" and the " mingling" almost always alluding to the occurrence of red with the other colours, and the term "ground " signifying an argillaceous material, and not a sandstone (see Vertical Section No. 14, Sheet 17). These reddish clays are worked in large excavations at the surface near Tipton and south of Oldbury, as well as between the Lye Waste and Stourbridge, and used for making a very superior kind of brick, generally of a deep blue colour. In the deep sinking at Great Bridge, near West Bromwich, where the Thick coal is 567 feet deep, there is a bed of "red marl" 6 feet thick, at a height of 205 feet above the Thick coal; and 38 feet above that again, or about 243 feet (or 80 yards) above the Thick coal, there is a group of red marls 64 feet thick, with a few beds of "blue" or "mottled rock." The Upper Sulphur coal then comes in with a "white fire clay" below and a "blue clunch" above, covered by about 63 feet of beds containing no red, over which are 192 feet of other measures, in which beds of "red marl" 8 to 16 feet in thickness, are very frequent.

We may, therefore, assume it as a fact, supported by all the available evidence we possess, that there was deposited a group of beds in the South Staffordshire coal-field lying about 100 yards above the Thick coal, being themselves about 100 yards in thickness, and principally composed of red or red and green (or blue) clays, variously interstratified with beds of other colours, and occasionally containing small coals, fireclays, &c.

This fact is very important, for it enables us to classify some beds in the northern part of the district in their right place as Coal-measures, notwithstanding the red colours which formerly led us to look upon them as belonging to the Permian (or even, still earlier, to the New red) formation. These are the red clays about Walsall Wood,^[3] those of Essington Wood, those of Rumour Hill near Cannock, and of Littleworth on Cannock Chase. They are largely opened for brick pits, the bricks being hard blue bricks of a superior quality and peculiar appearance. The beds in those northern localities consist principally of dark purplish-red clay, mottled and streaked occasionally with green, and interstratified not unfrequently with soft reddish or brown sandstones. They appear to constitute a group of very considerable thickness, since they have been sunk through for more than 200 feet at the Coppy Hall colliery, just at their edge, and have probably a total thickness of at least double that. They are nowhere known to be covered, in the northern part of the coal-field, by any group of greenish or brownish sandstone, as they are near Halesowen and the neighbourhood, but possibly they may have been so originally, after having, like the other coal-measures, swelled out to a greatly increased bulk on the north over that which they possessed on the south side of the district.

Having thus traced the beds over the Upper Sulphur coal, together, perhaps, with some of those in which it lies over the whole coal-field, we, will now turn to the detailed descriptions of the beds mentioned in the first general section given at page:

2. The Upper Sulphur Coal.—The Upper Sulphur coal is itself a small and insignificant bed, rarely if ever exceeding 1 foot 6 inches in thickness; it has never been "gotten," nor would it be worth the trouble of extracting. Like most other small coals, it is local only, and is altogether wanting in some shafts that go through the beds in which it is found at other places.

3. Intermediate Measures.—The intermediate measures, between the Upper Sulphur coal and the Two-foot, have a mean thickness of about 150 feet, which thickness, wherever the two coals are undoubtedly present, does not seem to vary more than 37 feet. The variations in thickness seem to be due to the greater or less abundance of sandstones. The beds are chiefly argillaceous, being designated usually by the terms "bind," "clunch," "ground," "fire-clay," &c., but having several interstratified beds of various kinds of "rock" or sandstone. Like the beds before described, as we go south the sandstones begin to thicken and predominate, and become in some instances conglomeritic.

4. Little or Two-foot Coal.—Although this coal has never been worked or "gotten," its thickness not being sufficient to allow it to be got with profit, it is yet a very persistent bed, as its presence is noted in all the detailed pit sections we have which pass through its place. It varies from 1 to 2 feet thick, but I know nothing of its quality, nor whether any trials of it have been made.

5. Intermediate measures between the Little coal and the Brooch.— These beds are almost universally clunch, binds, fire-clay, or some argillaceous material; but in one or two cases they contain beds of rock or sandstone. Their thickness in all the central portion of the field varies from 13 to 48 feet, the mean being about 25 feet. As we go south and west, however, into the district of Congreaves. Cradley, and the Black Delph, the thickness of these beds rapidly diminishes, and they vary only from 2 to 7 feet, consisting of fire-clay or batt, or both. In some places in the neighbourhood of Kingswinford, as also in the district last referred to, a little coal makes its appearance occasionally in these beds, but is too unimportant to require a separate notice.

6. (I.) The Brooch Coal.^[4]—This is the uppermost workable coal in the coal-field; it is almost invariably of excellent quality, and in great request in the district for parlour fires. It varies in thickness from 2} to 6 feet, the mean and by far the most usual thickness being about 4 feet. It is quite constant over the whole coal-field, wherever the beds occur in which it ought to be found.

7 and 8. (I.1.) Brooch binds ironstone measures and Herring coal.— These beds are almost entirely confined to one portion of the district, that, namely, on the west and south of Dudley. The Brooch binds are shales averaging about 7 feet in thickness (Vertical Sections, sheet 26. No. 49). In some places, as at Corbyns Hall, and Bromley Hall near Kingswinford, as also in the Corngreaves district, they contain ironstone nodules, which sometimes, but not always, are worth getting. About Brierly Hill and at Wordesley Bank Colliery they thicken out to upwards of 20 feet, and contain good ironstone. The Herring coal is generally about 18 'inches thick, and not worth getting; it is, however, very persistent in the district now described, and as we go towards High Haden we find other small coals, one of which is a cannel coal, coming in just below the Herring. Neither of these measures are mentioned in the section of the Oak-farm pit, nor in the borings at Holbeche Mill near Himley, on the west side of Dudley, nor do they occur at all on the east side of Dudley, except in one part of Tividale, where, in the record of an old sinking in 1797, given in Plott's History of Staffordshire. I find mentioned the following beds:-—

		FT.	IN.
a	Brooch coal	3	9
b	Black clunch	7	0
c	Coal	1	3
d	Pennyearth with ironstone	7	0

of which b and c must be the beds we are speaking of.

9. (I. 2.) The Pins and Pennyearth ironstone measures.—These take their names from the form of the ironstone nodules which they contain, the Pins being small cylindrical nodules, and the Pennyearth small round flattish nodules, like penny pieces. 'These measures have a wider spread than those last mentioned, since they are noted in sections east of Dudley, not only at Tividale but at Burnt-tree and Tipton, as also at Oldbury, in which last two places a small coal called Pennycoal, about a foot thick, is sometimes found in them. Their thickness there is from 7 to 20 feet. I do not know how far these beds may have extended and been formerly worked for ironstone in the central portion of the coal-field between Dudley and Bilston, but they are now principally, if not solely, gotten in its south-western portion between Dudley and Stourbridge, especially in the district around Corbyn's Hall and Brierley Hill, where they sometimes together attain a thickness of 27 feet; and at Wordesley Bank Colliery (Vertical Sections, sheet 18, No. 35) the Pins are 4 feet, and the Pennyearth 27 feet thick. They always occur also in the Corngreaves district, where they vary in thickness from 6 feet to 17 feet. It appears that the two measures not always distinctly recognizable, as sometimes one sometimes the other only is mentioned; and moreover, that the presence of good ironstone is uncertain, so that in some instances where the measures exist they are not worth working, and therefore but little noticed. They are not mentioned at all in the sections of Holbeche Mill and the Oak-farm on the one side, nor at Netherend near Cradley on the other side of the south-western district; nor do I find them mentioned by name in the sections about Highfields and Bradley south of Bilston, nor in those of Great Bridge and the Swan towards West Bromwich. In some sections, however, as in the old one of Bradley mine, beds containing ironstone are mentioned as occurring a short distance below the Brooch coal, which are probably these measures.

10. Intermediate measures, containing the Thick-coal rock.—These measures, according to the details given in thirty-five pit sections, vary greatly, not only in widely separated parts of the coal-field, but often in places immediately adjacent to each other.

In part of the country just south of Bilston the question is complicated by the occurrence of the "Flying reed," which will be described presently. Supposing this Flying reed to be the top beds of the Thick coal, we have here only 90 feet between it and the Brooch, occupied entirely by "blue binds," while in the beds interposed between the Flying reed and the remainder of the Thick coal there occurs a rock or sandstone of considerable thickness. In the district east of Kingswinford, where the phenomenon of the Flying reed again occurs, we have the recurrence of similar facts.

Setting those exceptional cases aside, we have at Bradley about 60 feet of beds between the Brooch and Thick coals, of which the uppermost portion is clunch and rock binds, with ironstone, the lower, peldon and grey rock, 27 feet thick; while around Tipton, Burnt-tree, Tividale, Great Bridge, Oldbury, and West Bromwich, there is an average thickness of between 120 and 130 feet for these beds, the greatest thickness being 170 feet and the least 83 feet. Of this thickness 73 feet on an average is composed of "rock" or sandstone, the greatest amount of that material being 120 feet and the least not more than 20 feet. The method of its occurrence varies as much as its amount, as it is interstratificd with more or less argillaccous materials in every possible way, except that the sandstone seems most generally to preponderate in the lower part of the mass.

In the south-western portion of the district the thickness of these beds also varies considerably. In the mines around Pensnett, Corbyns Hall, and Shut End, their total thickness varies from^[5] 52 feet to 116 feet, the average being 85 feet. In those around Corngreaves (or between the Lye Waste and Rowley Regis) the least thickness is 103 feet, the average rising to 125 feet, while the greatest I know is 157 feet. Around Brierley Hill, on the contrary, and at Wordesley Bank and the Black Delph, the greatest thickness of these beds is diminished to 52 feet, they are sometimes as little as 38 feet, the mean being only 46 feet. In each of these cases the thickness seems to vary almost directly as the quantity of "rock" or sandstone. In the Congreaves district the whole of these beds are almost entirely composed of rock and rock binds. Around Brierley Hill there is not more than 6 feet to 12 feet of rock, while round Corbyns Hall the quantity of rock is generally about half the whole mass, being more or less interstratified with beds of binds or clunch, which are generally described as "strong," meaning that the argillaceous is largely mingled with arenaceous or siliceous material. I do not know that any of these beds have acquired distinctive names, except that occasionally I have found near the bottom of them mention made of "Shooter's four measures," or "«Shooter's greys."

11. (I. 3.) Broad earth, Catch earth, and Batt, containing the Ten-foot and Backstone ironstones in the Pensnett district.—I do not know why the first is called "broad"; "catch" earth. I presume, is so-called because immediately under it they catch the coal, but I have sometimes seen it written "cat earth," or rather "cat heath." These are beds known to the miners, and to them only, as they can only be seen while a shaft is being sunk, and then only just while it is passing through them. They are, I believe, earthy shales of a peculiar character. I have had them described to me as "clunchy stuff," and in other similar terms. They do not appear to be always present, or if so their presence is not always noted in the sections. Where they do occur, however, they are said to be always recognizable by their peculiar character. The total thickness of all three beds seems never to exceed 12 or 14 feet, the most usual numbers being 6 or 8. The "black batt," or hard bituminous shale, is generally about one foot thick, and rests directly on the upper surface of the coal; this seems to be almost invariably present even when there is no mention made of cither of the other two beds. In the neighbourhood of Brierley Hill, and some other places, beds in this position, if not these beds, contain ironstone, the lowermost of which is called Backstone, and is found in shale immediately above the coal. The other is called Ten-foot stone, from its being found at that distance above the top of the Thick coal.

In the old Tividale section, mentioned before, the beds immediately above the Thick coal are as follows:—

		FT.	IN.
a	Clunch and ironstone	2	9
b	Black batt	6	0
c	Coal	0	6
d	Catch earth	2	9
e	Batt	7	0
f	Thick coal	31	6

In a section at Great Bridge, communicated by Mr. W. Matthews. I find these beds:-—

		FT.	IN.
a	Coal and batt	15	0
b	Blue rock	16	0
c	Thick coal	32	0

a and b being the most anomalous beds to rest on the Thick coal of which I have seen any account.

12. (II, to XV.) The Thick Coal.—We come now to the description of a set of beds of high interest and importance both to the practical miner and the theoretical geologist. To the latter the careful study of these beds would. I believe, afford many materials for arriving at a better understanding of the question of the origin of coal in general than he now possesses. Some of these materials I may be enabled to lay before him.

The "Thick coal" consists of a number of beds of coal, varying from 8 or 10 to 13 or 14, resting either directly one upon the other or separated by thin seams of " shale," or "clunch," called "partings." Each of these beds of coal is known to the miners by a particular name, and each has so much of a peculiar character that a block of it can be at once recognized by an old "thick-coal collier," and referred to its particular bed. This peculiarity of character in the different beds seems to extend over the whole of the Thick coal district, but whether the beds retain their peculiarities where they cease to form the Thick coal I am not aware. It would be a curious experiment for any one practically acquainted with the Thick coal to see whether any of the beds of Essington or Wyrley could be identified with any of those of the Thick coal by their lithological characters.

As good typical sections of the "Thick coal" I will, first of all, give two, taken from the central part of the district, one of the Claycroft colliery, at the Foxyards, about two miles north of Dudley, communicated by Mr. R. Smith from Lord Ward's office; another, the old sinking in 1797, at Tividale, one mile east of Dudley, taken from Shaw's History of Staffordshire, in which a very good account of the coal-field was given by Mr. Keir.

Foxyards.		Ft.	In.	Ft.	In.	Tividale		Ft.	In.	Ft.	In.
1.	Roofs coal	-	-	4	6	1.	Roof, or top floor	-	-	4	0
	Batt	0	9	-			Parting, soft dark earth;	0	4	-
2.	Top slipper	-	-	2	6	2.	Top slipper, or Spires	-	-	2	2
	Batt	0	7	-
						3.	Jays coal	-		2	0
3.	White coal	-	-	3	9		White stone parting	0	1	-
						4.	Lambs coals	-	-	1	0
4.	Tow^[6] (tough) coal	-	-	4	6	5.	Tow (tough) or Heath	-	-	1	6
						6.	Benches^[7] coal	-	-	1	6
5.	Brassils^[8] coal	-	-	1	6	7.	Brassils or Corns coal	-	-	1	6
	Batt	0	3	-		8.	Foot coal parting	0	4	-
6.	Foot coal			2	0	8.	Foot coal, or Bottom slipper			1	8
	Batt	0	3	-			John coal parting	0	1	–
7.	Slips coal			3	9	9.	John coal, or Slips, or Veins			3	0
	Hard stone	0	7	–			Hard stone	0	10	–
8.	Stone coal			4	6	10.	Stonecoal, or Long coal			4	0
9.	Sawyer^[9]			2	9	11.	Sawyer, or Springs			1	6
10.	Slipper			3	9	12.	Slipper			2	6
	Batt	0	6	–			Humphrey parting	0	1	–
11.	Benches^[10] coal			3	0	13.	Humphreys coal			2	3
		2	11	36	6			1	9	28	7
	Total, with partings			39	5		Total, with partings			30	4

A few years ago the unusually thick coal at Foxyards was worked by "open work," as it there "cropped out" to the surface, and was got out from a large quarry, exposing a cliff of coal 40 feet high and about 100 yards in length.

In Shaw's History of Staffordshire Mr. Keir gives the following account of the qualities of the different beds of the Thick coal near Tividale:-—

"There is a considerable difference in the quality of the different beds or measures of the main coal. The first or upper bed called the Roof floor is generally left as a roof to support the earth or clunch above it from falling. The second bed, called the Top Slipper, and the third and fourth beds, which together are called the White coal, are reckoned the best for chamber fires. Next to them in goodness are reckoned the eleventh and twelfth beds, called Sawyer and Slipper. After them come the eighth, ninth, and tenth, called the Foot-coal. Stone coal, and John coal. The Tows and Benches are preferred for making the cokes with which iron ore is smelted, and therefore are generally reserved for the furnaces. They do not kindle a flame so vividly as some of the foregoing measures, but they give a more durable and stronger heat. These two measures contain the largest proportion of fibres resembling charcoal. The part of the Brassil measure which contains pyrites is generally laid aside, or used only for burning bricks or lime. The Humphries, being the lowest measure, is that which is cut away in order to let those above it fall down, and, therefore, most of it is reduced to the small coal called sleck."

Proceeding from this central portion of the district, in every direction, we find several minor changes taking place in the constitution of the Thick coal. The individual beds, even where they are all present, vary frequently in thickness, and often in quality, in such a way, however, as to maintain the mean aggregate thickness of 30 feet over by far the greater portion of the district.

There are much more remarkable variations to be now noticed. In by far the larger portion of the extent of the Thick coal we find the upper beds consisting of—

Roofs, varying from 2 to 4 feet.
Top slipper or spires, varying from 2 to 3 feet.
White coal, generally about 3 feet.

Or sometimes the "Roofs" only is mentioned above the "White coal," with a thickness of 3 or 4 feet. If, however, leaving the central part near Dudley, we go towards the district between Bilston and Wolverhampton, we shall find the "White coal" forming the upper bed of the "Thick coal," and we shall get above it a separate bed of coal more or less removed from the "Thick coal," under the name of the "Flying reed coal." At Deepfields, near Coseley, we get the following section:^[11]^[12]—

	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal	4	0
Blue binds	54	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	84 feet
Rock	30	0		84 feet
White coal	3	0

under which come the "Tow," "Brassil," and the other measures of the Thick coal.

At Highfields, nearer Bilston, we have^[13] (Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 51)—

	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal	3	6
Sundries	54	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	204 ft. 3 in.
Do.	30	0
Do.	89	11
Rock	30	4
White coal	3	0
Tow coal	2	0
&c.	&c.	&c.

We thus get the top beds of the Thick coal separated from the rest by 84 feet in one case, and 204 ft. 3 in, in the other; the interposed materials consisting of clay and sandstone. North of Highfield there is no mention at all of the Flying reed, it having either cropped out altogether, or been thrown out by the great Lanesfield fault.

Between Bilston and Wolverhampton, the "White coal" is always looked on as the top of the Thick coal. Here, however, we get still another change in the central part of the Thick coal, as a considerable mass of shale, sometimes containing ironstone, is interposed between the "Foot coal" and the "Slips coal."^[14] This mass of shale, which goes by the euphonious appellation of "Hob and Jack," is 7 feet thick at Bradley Lodge just south of Bilston, and 10 feet at the Walling pits near Stow Heath, and at Ettingshall Lodge Colliery. There is exhibited in these facts that tendency in the Thick coal to split up towards the north, which has been already commented on in the general description of the Coal-measures.

If now we proceed from the neighbourhood of Dudley towards the west, we meet with very similar facts.

In going from Dudley to Kingswinford we find the Thick coal preserving a great uniformity of character for nearly three miles, varying but little from the following section:—

Section in the Horse-pasture. Corbyn's Hall.^[15]
		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Roofs coal			3	2
	White coal parting^[16]	3	6	-
2.	White coal			3	9
3.	Floors coal and batt			1	6
4.	Heath or tow coal			3	6
5.	Brassils coal			1	6
6.	Fine coal			2	6
7.	Veins coal			1	6
	Stone coal parting	0	8	-
8.	Stone coal			3	0
9.	Patchell's coal			1	0
10.	Sawyer coal			2	0
12.	Slipper coal			3	0
12.	Benches or kid coal			2	5
		4	2	28	10
	Total, with partings			33	0

A little north of Corbyns Hall, namely, at Shut End Colliery, and thence towards Kingswintord on the west, and Oak-farm on the north, we find a recurrence of the phenomenon of the "Flying reed" similar to that just noticed towards Bilston and Wolverhampton.

At the Dairy-pit in Shut End Colliery we have the Flying reed coal 4 feet thick, resting directly on the White coal 3 feet thick, with the remainder of the Thick coal beneath it, forming a total thickness of solid coal 29 feet 4 inches, with only one 3-inch parting above the "stone coal." Proceeding to No. 5 pit, about 100 yards south of the Dairy-pit, we get—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal			4	0
Soft shaly parting	10	6
Thick coal			25	4
	10	6	29	4

All the coals having exactly the same thickness as at the Dairy-pit, but 10½ feet of shale being interposed between the first and second. About 120 yards west-south-west of No. 5 pit we get at the new Engine pit—^[17]

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal			4	8
Strong binds	5	4
Dark clunch	2	3
Mild clunch	24	8
Dark shady clunch	6	6
Thick coal			22	6
	45	9	26	2

And at another pit 60 yards farther from No. 5, in the same straight line, we have —

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal			4	4
Mild clunch	29	2
Dark shady clunch	26	2
Thick coal	24	3
	55	4	28	7

At Kingswinford, half a mile farther west, we get^[18]—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal			3	0
Sundry measures	128	0
Thick coal^[19]	\|22		8
	128	0	25	8

While at Oak-farm Colliery, about half a mile north-north-west of Shut End, we have^[20]—

FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal			2	6
Strong binds	67	0
Rock (sandstone)	51	0
Thick coal			24	0
	118	0	26	6

Fig. 4

The facts stated above are represented in Figure No. 4, in which the original relative positions of the coals are drawn with as close an approximation to accuracy as the materials will allow.

At two pits, sunk since the first edition of this Memoir was published, of which the sections have been communicated by Mr. Beckett, of Wolverhampton, who obtained them from Mr. Growcott, the following facts are noticeable:—

No. 1. Round Hill pits, near Fir Tree House.^[21] Himley,—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal			2	3
Fire clay, &c.	8	3
Strong dark binds	29	0
Binds and peldon	25	3
Rock and peldon	46	6
Thick coal (with partings)			39	2
	109	0	41	5

No. 3. Pit of Himley Colliery, a little south of the pit above,—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Flying reed coal			2	6
Fire clay	5	0
Rock binds and peldon	110	6
Thick coal			24	6
	115	6	27	0

It is very remarkable that there seems to be no corresponding addition to the height of the Brooch coal above the remainder of the Thick coal in these cases; but as the thickness between the Flying reed coal and the remainder of the Thick coal increases, that between the Flying reed and the Brooch diminishes in nearly the same ratio. Where, for instance, the Flying reed is only 10 feet 6 inches above the rest of the Thick coal, the Brooch is 95 feet above the Flying reed, but it is only 30 feet above it in the last section given above, where the latter is 115 feet above the rest of the Thick coal.

It is farther remarkable that both on the north and on the west where this Flying reed makes it appearance there is a simultaneous change, not only in the grouping, but in the nature of the beds between the Brooch and it. Wherever the Thick coal remains entire, there is a sandstone known as the Thick-coal rock above the Thick coal and between it and the Brooch. When, however, the Flying reed has attained any height above the Thick coal, there is no sandstone between it and the Brooch, but sandstone (or rock) is found underneath the Flying reed between it and the rest of the Thick coal.

It appears, then, notwithstanding the inclined position of the Flying reed with respect to the Thick coal, that the Brooch remains nearly parallel to the latter, so that we have the three principal coals, the Heathen, the Thick, and the Brooch, retaining their parallelism, while the Flying reed or top part of the Thick lies obliquely between them, separating from each other two similar groups of sandstone beds, one above it and the other below it, these sandstones being nearly on the same horizon, but clearly not contemporaneous with each other.

To the south of the Shut End and Kingswinford district, the measures rapidly resume their normal condition, as represented in the Corbyns Hall section given above. That section may be taken as a sufficiently close description of the Thick coal over all the district between Kingswinford. Dudley, and Halesowen, allowance being made for frequent slight variations in the thicknesses of the different beds of coal and of the partings between them.

As we go down to the Lye Waste, however, near Stourbridge, and approach the south-western boundary of the coal-field, we find a very remarkable change takes place in the character of the Thick coal in that direction, as it loses all its generally distinctive features and assumes those of the following section taken at Tintam Abbey fire-clay works:^[22]—

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Top coal			7	0
	Spoil (shale, &c.)	5	0
2.	Middle coal			6	0
	Spoil (shale, &c.)	5	0
3.	Bottom coal			6	0
		10	0	19	0
	Total, with partings			29	0

Here, then, as before, we find a tendency in the Thick coal to split up into several groups of beds, although here that tendency is produced by a thinning and diminution in the coal itself, and its replacement by earthy beds, and not as before by a mere separation of the beds by additional beds of shale or sandstone.

About a mile to the eastward of Tintam Abbey, at the Hayes colliery, the Thick coal was found to have the following section, communicated by Mr. T. King Harrison, who also informed me, that farther south the coal became so bad and rubbishy as not to be worth working.

Section of the Thick coal at the Hayes colliery, near Lye Waste:—

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Six inch coal			0	5
2.	Roofs coal			2	0
3.	Spires coal			3	0
4.	White coal			3	6
	Dirt	2	0
5.	Heath coal			4	0
	Dirt	5	0
6.	Brassils			4	0
	Dirt	4	0
7.	Fine coal			3	0
8.	Stone coal			1	0
9.	Foot coal			1	6
	Dirt	1	0
10.	Patchells coal			2	6
	Dirt	1	0
11.	Sawyer coal			2	3
	Dirt	5	0
12.	Slipper			3	0
		18	0	30	3
	Total, with partings			48	3

From the frequently high inclination of the beds at the Hayes, it is possible that some deduction must be made from the thicknesses given above, so as to bring them more in accordance with the thickness found in other pits in the neighbourhood. Still the section is good so far as showing the separation of the coals, in which it agrees with the section of the pits at the Hawn colliery, which are the farthest pits towards the south-east that have been opened. It will be seen that at the Hawn colliery the Benches coal is only 6 inches thick, while that bed is absent altogether at the Hayes, where, however, its absence is compensated for by the appearance of a little six inch coal, above the ordinary Roof coal.

The Hawn Colliery.^[23]
		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Roof coal			1	6
2.	Spires, or spin coal			2	7
3.	White coal			3	0
	Parting	2	0
4.	Heath or tow coal			3	0
5.	Brassils coal			1	6
	Parting	3	0
6.	Stone coal			3	0
	Parting	1	0
7.	Patchells coal			1	6
	Parting	0	8
8.	Sawyer coal			1	6
9.	Slipper coal			3	0
	Parting	1	6
10.	Benches coal			0	6
		8	2	21	1
	Total, with partings			29	3

A very similar section to this, except that the partings are hardly so large, is that of Mr. Mills's colliery, about one mile north-by-east of Hawn, just under the "B." of " Black Heath," in the Ordnance map. Mr. Mills gave it me as follows: —

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Roofs coal			1	6
2.	Spires coal			2	9
3.	White coal			3	0
	Parting	0	9
4.	Fine floors coal			1	4
5.	Tow coal			3	0
6.	Brassils coal			1	6
	Parting	0	6
7.	Fine coal			2	9
	Parting	2	0
8.	Veins coal			2	0
9.	Stone coal			3	0
	Dunjack, hard parting	0	6
10.	Patchells coal			2	9
	Batt	0	4
11.	Sawyer coal			1	4
12.	Slipper coal			4	3
13.	Benches coal			1	6
		4	1	30	8
	Total, with parting			34	9

Now, about three quarters of a mile cast-south-east of the latter place, there was a deep pit sunk some years ago by the Rev. E. Dudley, and the place was called the Black Heath colliery. 'The section of this pit was communicated to me by Mr. Benjamin Gibbons, of Shut End House, and is drawn in the 18th sheet of Vertical sections. No. 23. In this section they found the beds above the Thick coal in regular order, but thin and poor, the Brooch coal, for instance, being not more than 9 inches or | foot thick, instead of 3 or 4 feet. 'They passed through the Broad earth and Catch earth, the usual measures above the Thick coal, but below them they found—

		FT.	IN.
1.	Soft parting	1	0
2.	Black batt	6	0
3.	Bad and rubbishy coal	7	5
4.	Good coal	3	0
5.	Brown batt and rock	10	0
6.	Ditto, with ironstone balls	4	3
7.	Batt	0	9
8.	Coal	2	0

Of this section 3 and 4 must be taken to represent the Thick coal, 6 the Gubbin measures, and 7 and 8 the Heathen coal, hereafter to be described. Mr. W. Matthews informed me that he drove out gate-roads and headings towards Cakemoor in various directions and for considerable distances from this shaft without being able to find anything of more value or importance. We have here, then, the appearance of a great change and deterioration in the Thick coal, as indeed in the productiveness of the whole series, towards the south-east, proceeding from Dudley as a centre. If again we started from the neighbourhood of Oldbury, where the Thick coal beds have their normal character, we should find, as we proceeded to the south, towards this same Blackheath, that there is likewise a gradual thinning out of the Thick coal. At Mr. Chance's, No. 2 pit, between Park House and Titford reservoir, the Thick coal is only 27 feet thick, and it was said, when worked, to have thinned rapidly out towards the great boundary fault on the east, to only 7 feet, and even less.^[24] Again, at Birchy-field colliery, between Portway Hall and Titford reservoir, the Thick coal is only 21 feet thick, the whole number of beds being described as present, but each a little thinner than ordinary; and further south, near Titford reservoir, the Thick coal was said to end altogether, either by gradual thinning or by the interposition of sandstone and shale beds.

At the time when the first edition of this Memoir was published the above was all the intelligence that could be procured as to the south-eastern corner of the coal-field. Several subsequent explorations, however, have been made which I was able partially to examine in 1858.

In the first place. Dr. Percy's workings in the Thick coal at the Grace Mary collicry, on the north slope of the Rowley Hills, near Lye Cross Farm, have been continued towards the south, or towards the ground where the basalt appears at the surface. The Thick coal in that direction was greatly deteriorated, and its value almost altogether destroyed, by two circumstances, first by its place being largely occupied by white sandstone, which was deposited together with it; secondly, by veins of trap having been subsequently intruded into it. The sandstone thus contemporaneously deposited with the Thick coal, or instead of it, is spoken of sometimes as "rock and rig," and sometimes as a "rock fault." It will be presently described under the latter designation. The trap veins will be also described under the head of Igneous rocks.

In the colliery belonging to Messrs. Bagnall, adjacent to Dr. Percy's, similar or even greater deterioration of the Thick coal was said to occur.

In the district south of Portway Hall some pits have recently been sunk for Lord Ward. One of these is at Ramrod Hall, a little east of Rowley Regis, just where the W. of "White Heath Gate" is engraved on the Ordnance map. In this pit the following section was found, as communicated by Mr. Spence:—

		FT.	IN.
^[25]1.	Binds, marl, rock, &c.	381	0
2.	Coal (Two-foot?)	1	9
3.	Black ground and fire-clay	10	3
4.	Brooch coal and batt	1	0
5.	Blue binds and sand rocks	124	0
6.	Broad earth	3	0
7.	Black batt	1	0
8.	Thick coal (mingled with sandstones)	4	0
9.	Gubbin measures and Heathen coal mixed with sandstone)	5	0
10.	Rock and rock binds	16	9
11.	White ironstone measures	2	0
12.	Binds with a Stinking coal	5	9
		555	6

At a distance of 70 yards to the eastward of this shaft the Thick coal was found instead of 4 feet to be 26 feet thick, but "to contain several layers of thin rock."

Other shafts have been worked and Thick coal gotten south of Titford reservoir, but it all seems very subject to be more or less deteriorated by interstratified layers and irregular beds and cakes of sandstone. At Messrs. Harper and Moore's pits, at Causeway Green, the Brooch coal was found with a thickness of 2 feet 3 inches, and the Thick coal was found below at a depth of about 170 yards (510 feet) from the surface, lying regularly and horizontally with the following as its general section, as given me by Mr. Green, on the spot.

Causeway Green Colliery. Messrs. Harper and Moore:—
		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Roofs coal			1	8
2.	Top slipper coal			2	0
3.	Jay's coal			2	0
4.	Lamb's and Tow coal			4	0
5.	Brassils coal			3	0
6.	Top foot coal			1	4
7.	Bottom foot coal			0	7
	Loamy parting	2	0
8.	Slipper or Slips coal			1	0
9.	Stone coa			2	3
10.	Patchell's coal			1	4
11.	Sawyer coal			4	0
12.	Benches			2	0
		2	0	25	2
	Total with parting			27	2

In one shaft, however, the coal was found to be separated into two by a great cake of sandstone, 60 feet thick, the section being—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Upper part of Thick coal			19	6
Sandstone	60	0
Lower part of Thick coal			4	6
			24	0
			84	0

The whole of the coal also, even where it was not separated by large beds of sandstone, was flecked, and veined with it in all directions, little seams of white sandstone, from a quarter of an inch to two or three inches in thickness, occurring here and there throughout the coal. In some places, too, in the gate-roads, a more considerable body of sandstone might be seen either interposed between two coals, or taking the place of one or other of them for a certain distance.

There was little or no mingling, or kneading together, of the two substances in the same mass, but merely a minute interposition of the two, the sandstone even in the thinnest layers being often clear white quartzose sand, while the coal was clear brilliant black, with apparently even less earthy admixture than usual. The deterioration in the commercial value of the coal was not its inferior quality as coal, but the difficulty of getting large coals free from these layers of sandstone, and the expense that would be incurred in separating the two substances if that were attempted. (See postea, p. 50).

All the evidence then at present known gocs rather against the value of the coals and ironstones to be found in the corner of the coal-field that lies south of Oldbury, and east of Rowley Regis and Halesowen, for although particular spots may possibly contain workable beds of coal, yet the hitting on those spots must always be a matter of chance, as there seems to be no indications in the general mass of the ground to lead up to them.

North of Oldbury I know of no important variation in the character of the Thick coal, either towards Tipton or Wednesbury, until we return to the district near Bilston, already described.

In the Thick coal worked beneath the Lower red sandstone, or Permian of West Bromwich, the thickness is described as only 27 feet or 28 feet; but it appears to be all solid coal, with none but the most insignificant partings.

Rock faults, swells, rolls, &c.—There are some remarkable peculiarities and irregularities of structure, which, although by no means peculiar to the Thick coal, but occurring now and then in all beds of coal in all coal-fields, are yet so well seen in the Thick coal on account of the scale on which they are exhibited, that it is worth while to take this opportunity of describing them a little more in detail.

One kind of irregularity has been just alluded to, namely, the occurrence of sandstones in the mass of the coal, or in the place of it. This is often spoken of by the miners, under the name of a "rock fault," a term we may use for want of a better, though it is apt to give rise to confusion, unless it be carefully distinguished from the true " fault," a dislocation which is quite independent of the character or quality of the beds.

Rock faults seem to be of two kinds, the one like that described by Mr. Buddle, under the name of "The Horse," as occurring in the Forest of Dean coal-field, which seems to be the result of a partial denudation or wearing away of the coal just subsequent to its formation, the hollow thus eroded being filled with whatever substance it was that was next deposited on the top of the coal. The other kind of rock fault arises from the contemporaneous deposition of sand or silt together with the coal, so that the formation of the two alternated at comparatively short intervals and over a comparatively small space, so that the whole coal incloses cakes, layers, or masses of sandstone of greater or less magnitude, and more or less intermingled with it. These masses may sometimes apparently be so large as over a certain part of the area to exclude the coal altogether, although they dove-tail into it, and are interlaced with it in interstratified layers round the margin of the area.

I never had the opportunity of personally examining an example of the first kind of rock fault. Mr. Aaron Peacock, however, described one to me as occurring a little west of Oldbury, in the Gower pits at the northern foot of the Rowley Hills. According to this description, which was very carefully given, there was a gap in the Thick coal 60 yards wide, and of much greater length. The bed on which the Thick coal rests is there called the "pouncill batt," and he described this as running under the Thick coal and across the gap the whole way with great regularity. The Thick coal was said to end on each side with a smooth slope, and the Broad earth or Cat earth above the coal was described as coming down over this slope, and running along upon the pouncill batt till it met the other slope, when it rose over it on to the top of the coal again. The distance from the point where the Thick coal first began to diminish in thickness to that where it ceased altogether was about 80 yards, which would give a slope of about 7°. The Cat-heath (or earth) above the coal is about 5 feet thick in the neighbourhood, with sandstone over it, varying in thickness from 12 to 30 yards. In some places, however, there is no Cat-earth, and the sandstone rests directly on the coal. Over the above-mentioned gap in the Thick coal the sandstone is thicker than ordinary, and in one place it is 60 yards thick. The face of the slope of coal on each side of the gap was quite smooth, without any intermingling of the Cat-earth or sandstone with the coal. Unfortunately these workings were under water when the country was surveyed, so that it was impossible to verify this description, which I believe to be sufficiently accurate.

Of the second kind of rock fault I had fortunately a good opportunity of examining an example, through the kindness of Mr. George Thompson, who several times accompanied me through the under-ground workings, and gave me every information both there and in his office.

It occurs at the Baremoor colliery, about three miles south of Dudley. The Thick coal is worked all round the neighbourhood with its usual thickness and characters, and at a depth varying from 350 feet to 600 feet below the surface. A little above it is the usual Thick-coal rock, or sandstone, rather thicker, perhaps, than it is generally found in other parts of the coal-field. The following section^[26] from the Old Lion, colliery, east of Baremoor, resents very closely the usual section found in all the pits about. (See Vertical Sections, sheet 18, No. 22.)

		FT.	IN.
1.	Upper measures	448	4
2.	Two-foot coal	2	3
3.	Batt and coal mixed	3	0
4.	Brooch coal	2	6
5.	Brooch-stone measures	4	10
6.	Herring coal	1	6
7.	Pins and pennyearth	17	2
8.	Cannel coal	0	9
9.	Brown clunch	3	6
10.	Thick-coal rock, composed of rock binds (argillaceous sandstone) and peldon (hard flinty stone)	106	2
11.	Cat-heath (estebreate)	1	6
12.	Black batt	3	4
13.	Thick coal and partings	31	0
14.	Black batt	2	0
15.	Gubbin ironstone measures	10	6
16.	Heathen coal	3	5
17.	Parting	2	0
18.	Second Heathen coal	3	3
19.	Table batt^[27]	0	10
20.	White rock and peldon	15	9
21.	White ironstone measures	5	4
22.	Cake ironstone measures	3	0
		671	11

Now if with that section we contrast the following one, found in sinking the new Baremoor pit, we shall at once see the whole amount of the change:—

			FT.	IN.
^[28]7.		To the bottom of the Pins and Pennyearth	280	4
8	& 9.	Heath measures	15	0
10.		Thick-coal rock, composed of rock binds and sandy rock	107	0
11.		Cat heath	2	0
12.		Black batt	3	0
13.		Top part of thick coal	9	0
		Black batt	0	8
		Sandy rock, mixed with clunch	42	0
		Rock binds	44	8
15	?	Black batt	0	4
16.		Heathen coal	2	10
17.	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Black batt and fire-clay	5	10
		Brown rock	0	1
		Black batt	1	0
18.		Second Heathen coal	3	2
19.		Black batt	1	4
20.	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Soft brown parting	0	3
		Peldon and rock mixed	4	0
		Strong white ground	13	4
21.		Whitestone measures	6	6
			533	1

Here we find that in this shaft all the measures were regular until they came down into the Thick coal, which, however, they passed through in about 9 feet, and came into sandstone. This 9-foot coal was then worked, and it was said to thin out in every direction by the gradual bending down of its roof, till it was no longer worth following. The shaft having been continued into the Whitestone measures without finding any more Thick coal, and the two Heathen coals having been found lying regularly below, they then proceeded to drive gate-roads (or galleries) from the surrounding excavations in the undiminished Thick coal towards this new Baremoor shaft. In so doing they discovered the nature of the mass of interposed sandstone; and in the year 1849 they had already worked round three sides of it, and thus partially proved its extent.^[29] They found it to be an oval cake of

Scale, 1 inch = 133 feet.

A The Old Baremoor shaft.

B The New Baremoor shaft.
1. The Two-foot coal.
2. The Broach coal.
3. The Herring coal.
4. The Broach binds ironstones.
5. Heath measures.
6. Rock binds, argillaceous sandstone.
7. Rock, sandstone.
8. Cat-heath.
9. The Thick coal.
10. The Grains and Gubbin ironstone.
11. The first Heathen coal.
12. Black batt and fire-clay.
13. Second Heathen coal.
14. Batt and soft ground.
15. Rock, sandstone.
16. Cake and white ironstones.

sandstone, the major axis of which ran nearly due north and south. It was 13 chains or 286 yards wide, and it had been already traced north and south through a space of about 400 yards without reaching its northern extremity. In driving a gate-road towards it in the lowest part of the the Thick coal, it was found that at the height of about 10 feet from the bottom of "the benches," sandstone came in, and formed the roof of the coal; and from that point the sandstone gradually descended, and cut out bed after bed of coal until it reached the bottom of the benches, and some portion of it even descended below the Thick coal, and cut out the upper Heathen coal. When I first visited this gate-road, it was supposed that this sandstone had cut out the whole, not only of the lower part, but also of the upper part of the Thick coal; and the ground bailiff and colliers assured Mr. Thompson that they had bored upwards for several yards, and found nothing but "rock." This, on the subsequent extension of the workings, was proved to be merely one of those falsehoods that these men so frequently assert to save themselves a little trouble. In 1851 the upper part of the Thick coal was found to extend some distance over the extreme point of the interposed sandstone, and there is very little doubt that the 9-foot coal passed through in the New Baremoor shaft, instead of thinning out in every direction, really thickens gradually towards the upper part of the Thick coal around it. What makes this more probable is, that in working from the Thick coal around, towards the shaft, the coal became hard and intractable, making it more difficult to get. It is probable that for this reason the ground bailiff or butty collier, at that time in charge, declared it thinned out, and was not worth following.

This mass of interposed sandstone was very fine grained, rather soft, slightly argillaceous, of a light, greenish white colour; not at all differing from the usual argillaceous sandstones of the neighbourhood, which pass under the name of "rock" or "rock binds." It was not only interstratified with the coal en masse, but at or near the junction of the two they each split up into many beds, that interlaced with the utmost regularity. Beds of sandstone, two or three feet thick, extended many yards into the coal, gradually thinning out and splitting up, so that hand specimens could be procured of alternations of bright coal and pale sandstone, each little bed being not more than one tenth of an inch in thickness. Similarly did small beds and thin laminæ of coal stretch into the mass of the sandstone; a few separate masses also, a foot or so in thickness, sometimes occurring suddenly, not as detached fragments, but as little independent beds in the sandstone. Of the alternation and interstratification of the two materials the following cut (Fig. 6) will give a good idea:—

Fig. 6

This figure is taken from a hand specimen, and is three-fourths the natural size. If it were supposed to be indefinitely enlarged till each bed of coal was 2 or 3 feet in thickness, it would do equally well for a representation of the interlacing of the larger beds. It must be borne in mind that even the minute scams of coal in the above-drawn hand specimen were not mere carbonaceous matter, but were perfectly bright, good coal; and that little or no difference was perceived in the quality of the coal interstratified with the rock fault, and that of the same beds in the unaffected coal around it.

It is clear from the above facts that this is not a case of any kind of denudation of the coal subsequently to its formation, but that whatever cause produced this mass of interposed sandstone was acting during the time of the formation of the coal. We will, however, defer the consideration of the theoretical inference to be deduced from these cases to a future page.

The occurrence of the "rock and rig" or white sandstone, more or less streaked with coal in the Thick coal at Dr. Percy's pits and the neighbourhood, about a mile to the south-east of Tividale, is one of precisely similar kind to that just described. Great irregularly formed beds of this sandstone come in, over, under, and among the coals there, the coal being sometimes streaked and veined with sandstone layers, and the sandstone having often vein-like layers of perfectly bright coal. In some places there the coal seems to have been partially eroded, and patches of black batt covered by sandstone deposited in the hollows thus formed, in others the two substances were evidently deposited in alternate layers of an inch or two in thickness, the layers of each substance thickening out and coalescing in opposite directions into larger and larger masses.

The whole measures, however, here have been evidently subject to great squeezing and dislocation. They are traversed by faults, and slickenside surfaces are seen in every direction, and sometimes the layers, especially those of coal lying in the sandstone have been bent, and are now tortuous like veins, while masses of the sandstone have likewise indented the coal.

The confusion is further complicated by veins of trap, which are all of a white colour, having intruded into both coal and sandstone, as will be described further on.

Mr. Cooksey, who accompanied me over these workings during the past year (1858), informed me that in driving gate-roads through these masses of intertangled coal, sandstone, and trap, they had met with one or two cakes of unaltered and uninjured Thick coal, of sufficient extent to pay part of the unprofitable outlay in making explorations.^[30]

I also, in October 1858, visited the under-ground workings of Messrs. Harper and Moore's colliery at Causeway Green, accompanied by their agent. Mr. Green. The great cake of sandstone, 60 feet thick, spoken of at p. 44, must undoubtedly be an example of a rock fault. We were not then able to examine it, but in some of the gate-roads I observed masses of sandstone lying in the coal, in so remarkable a manner that I made sketches and measured them as accurately as could be done ea ground without greater preparation. These are shown in Figs. 7 and 8.

Fig. 7

Scale, 8 feet to 1 inch.

The mass of sandstone shown in Fig. 7 was about 18 feet long and 5 or 6 feet high. It was of a pale greenish grey colour, fine grained, principally quartzose, with a little argillaceous matter mingled with it. It occupied parts of four beds of coal, but although laminated throughout and marked here and there with dark carbonaceous streaks, or even little seams of bright coal, it did not seem itself to be separable into four beds, nor was there any distinct plane of stratification (distinct from the lamination) visible in it. Its form was as nearly as possible that given in the sketch, the indentations being as sharp and angular as there drawn. The thinning and arching of the coal over the thickest part of the sandstone was very noticeable.

Fig. 8

Scale, 4 feet to 1 inch.

Fig. 8 is a similar sketch, taken in a neighbouring part of the same gate-road, drawn on twice the scale. 'The principal mass of sandstone was about six feet long, with a smaller mass of two feet at one corner. The sandstone extended through three beds of coal, but was more separated by rather irregular planes of stratification than that seen in Fig. 7.

Many other masses of pale sandstone were to be seen in the coal on each side of these gate-roads, while in some places the whole coal seemed mottled and streaked with flakes of sandstones. It was especially remarkable that the thin seams of coal interstratified with these sandstones, seemed even brighter and purer than the main mass of the coal, where it was without any interlacing of arenaceous layers or masses.

Rolls, Swells, &c.—The second peculiarity of structure in the Thick coal is that which forms those irregularities, called "horse's backs," "rolls," " swells," "pack-saddle faults," &c. These are caused by a rise of the floor of a coal up towards the roof, in such a manner as to form a long arched ridge running through the coal, sometimes for a very considerable distance. I examined one of these in the Baremoor colliery, when visiting it with Mr. Thompson. The black batt containing nodules of ironstone, which usually lies below the coal, seemed to thicken upwards very gradually, and the three lower coals ended against it with a distinctly rounded outline, and without any mark or sign of disturbance, either contemporary or at a subsequent period. So gradual was the rise of the lower batt, that at one part of the gate-road it required 18 feet of horizontal distance to rise 2 feet 9 inches vertically. In other words, the slope was not so much as 1 in 6 (=9°)

Fig. 9.—Section of a "swell" in the Baremoor colliery.

Scale, 16 feet to 1 inch.

a. Bottom part of Thick coal. 1. Patchells. 2. Sawyer. 3. Slipper. 4. Benches.
b. Swell, or horse's back, consisting of dark clunch, (black clod).
c. Large irregular nodules of ironstone.

Fig. 9 is a sketch of the transverse section of the swell, from a rough drawing and measurement on the spot.

After continuing for a few feet in the Patchells, the crest of the swell gradually descended, letting in the lower coals again, the fas two sides of it being nearly, if not quite, symmetrical. I do not know what was the longitudinal extension of this particular ridge, but they are often met with one or two hundred yards long; and sometimes one or two will run close together, parallel to each other, for that distance.

It 1s, of course, possible that they might in some cases have been caused by disturbance anterior to or contemporary with the formation of of the lower part of Thick coal, though, in that case, the beds below would be equally bent, which is not. I believe, found to be the fact. It is, however, much more likely that they were merely long ridge-like accumulations of mud or sand piled up in the water in which the measure forming the floor of the coal was deposited. Theoretically, they are important as showing that whatever was the process of the formation of coal, it was in this case necessarily formed in a strictly horizontal position. The lowest bed of the Thick coal (see Figure No. 9) ended against the very gentle slope of the swell, and no bed was formed over it until a sufficient accumulation of coal had taken place around it to make a floor level with its crest. The minute partings of shale or earth between the different beds of coal in the Baremoor colliery sensibly thickened as they approached the swell and coalesced with it. In a practical point of view these swells are worthy of study, inasmuch as they often diminish or destroy the value of a tract of coal. They very frequently occur. I believe, in all coal-fields, but it is not always that they can be so well examined and understood as in the Thick coal of Staffordshire. They are commonly spoken of by the colliers as faults, a term likely to lead all concerned into great errors, and which, in a case within my own experience, was the origin of a dispute between two gentlemen in South Staffordshire, involving considerable legal expenses.^[31]

13. (I.4.) Pouncill batt, Blacktry and Whitery, containing the "Grains" ironstone, and sometimes the "Whitery" ironstone.—Immediately under the Thick coal is almost invariably a bed I or 2 feet thick of "black batt," dark bituminous shale, which, in the districts immediately east and west of Dudley is called the "Pouncill batt." Under that is from 1 to 3 or 4 feet of dark "ground" or clunch, called "Blacktry." This in the central and southern parts of the fields often contains small nodules of ironstone, called the "Grains ironstone." Under that is 1 or 2 or 3 feet of a light coloured ground or clunch, containing also in some cases ironstone called the "Whitery ironstone." The three beds together never exceed 8 feet in thickness; they are rarely all present at once, the batt seeming the most constant, but they are sometimes altogether wanting, and the Thick coal rests on the measures containing the Gubbin ironstone. In one instance, namely, at Tipton Green, their place is taken by 6 feet of grey rock.

In the Bentley district there is a little coal and ironstone, which, from its position above the top Gubbin, seems to belong to these beds. The following is a section supplied by Mr. James George:—

	FT.	IN.
Ironstone	0	2
Clunch	0	10
Batt	0	5
Ironstone	0	2
Coal	1	2
Clunch	3	0
Clunch and ironstone	4	0
	9	9

These measures are there known by the name of the "Bind coal and ironstone."

14. (I.5.) The Gubbin or Little Gubbin ironstone.—This seems to be one of the most constant beds in the whole district. It generally contains ironstone of good quality, and has been greatly worked. The measures usually consist of dark clunch, containing isolated ironstone nodules in one, two, or three bands. Between Bilston and Wolverhampton the measures are from 2 to 4 feet thick, but around Dudley they are generally 6 feet, and sometimes 7, 8, or 9. The following detailed section occurs at Upper Gornal clay-works,^[32] and will give a good idea of the structure of these measures:-—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Ironstone			0	6
Dark clunch	2	0
Ironstone (cannock)			0	6
Dark clunch	2	0
Ironstone (rubble)			0	3
Black batt	0	6
	4	6	1	3
Total, with partings			5	9

In some parts around Dudley the ironstone of these measures is called "Blackstone," to distinguish it from the "Whitestone," hereafter to be described.

About Bentley this Gubbin ironstone has a little coal associated with it, as in the following section:—

	FT.	IN.
Binds	1	0
Ironstone (Gubbin)	0	6
Binds and batt	1	3
Coal and batt	1	2
Fire-clay	0	10
Coal	0	7
Binds	21	0
Clunch and ironstone	3	0
Black batt	0	11
	29	3

Comparing this section with the one given below from Claycross, it seems probable that the Black batt 11 inches which rests directly on the Heathen coal, is in reality the Table batt, which at Claycross also reposes directly on the Heathen coal.

15. Table batt and intermediate measures.—The Table batt is a very compact, black, carbonaceous shale, splitting into large slabs, which when first exposed look firm, but soon crumble to pieces. It is found throughout the southern district with a thickness varying from 2 to 4 feet, except in the neighbourhood of Congreaves, and thence towards Stourbridge and Kingswinford, where I find no mention made of it, and around Corbyns Hall it is only 1 foot thick. Sometimes it has associated with it a little coal and ironstone, as in the section at Claycross, near Dudley, which will be useful for comparison with sections farther north:—

	FT.	IN.
Sharp batt	1	6
Rubble stone	0	5
Little coal	0	6
Brown stone	0	5
Table batt	2	6
	5	4

The measures between the Table batt and the Heathen coal are wholly confined to the district between Walsall and Wolverhampton. We have seen that in the south-western angle of the coal-field the last measure is wanting, and there the Gubbin ironstone measures rest directly on the Heathen coal. Proceeding in every direction from this part, the Table batt comes in between them, at first only a few inches thick, but gradually swelling to 4 feet. Still, in the district around Dudley there is nothing else to be found between the Gubbin and the Heathen coal; hut, as we approach Bradley, we get eventually about 10 feet of fire-clay and clunch, and farther north we find a pretty regular thickness of, from 18 to 24 feet (or 6 to 8 yards) of clunch, binds, or other argillaceous material, commonly of a white colour, interposed between the black table batt and the heathen coal. Sometimes a "black ring,"^[33] or a small coal 6 or 8 inches thick, makes its appearance in the upper part of these measures, and in the lower part of them there are sometimes ironstone nodules, which are called either Lambstone^[34] or Heathen coal stone.

16, 17, 18. (XVI) Heatgen Coal,^[35] intermediate measures and (XVIL) Rubble Coal.—I take these two coals and their intermediate beds together, because I believe that the Rubble coal of the northern part of the district is the second or Lower Heathen of the southern part.

The Heathen or Upper Heathen coal is a very well marked bed over nearly the whole of the coal-field; it varies from 14 to 4 feet in thickness; its usual thickness being about 3 feet. Even as far north as the Brown Hills, in the deep pit of the Cathedral colliery, there is a coal which is called Heathen coal, and I believe rightly so called. It has there a thickness of 2 feet 6 inches.

In the district around Congreaves, Cradley, and south of Brierly Hill, there is always mentioned a second or Lower Heathen coal, about 2 feet thick, and from 10 to 20 feet below the first or upper Heathen coal. The beds between the two thicken to the south, and at Mr. King's pits at Netherend are 43 feet thick, chiefly sandstones: they thin out to the north, and about Corbyns Hall. Shut End, and Kingswinford they first of all thin to 1 foot, and then disappear altogether, the two Heathen coals then being considered one coal, and having a thickness of from 5 to 7 feet. Just on either side of Dudley there appears to be neither Lower Heathen nor Rubble coal, but from Tipton northwards around Bilston and thence to Wolverhampton, there is almost always a Rubble coal varying in thickness from 2 to 4 feet, and in depth below the Heathen, from 7 to 24 feet. The interposed materials contain always clunch and other argillaccous matters, and often some sandstone, which occasionally thickens out, and causes the variations in thickness between the two coals. I believe, therefore, that what is called Rubble coal in the district north of Dudley is the same bed with the Lower Heathen coal of the district south-west of Dudley. There is, however, no mention of any Rubble coal beneath the Heathen in the Deepfields sections, nor does it appear to exist in the Bentley district.

19. (I. 6.) Measures between the Heathen and Rubble coals and the New mine ironstone, containing at Bentley the ironstones known there as the Lambstone and Brownstone.—These beds, in the great majority of instances, wherever they are known, are composed of rock, peldon, and rock binds; that is to say, some variety of sandstone. Sometimes, however, they are said to consist more or less of binds, elunch, or clod, and in a few instances to be entirely composed of those argillaceous materials. Their thickness varies from 10 feet to upwards of 30 feet, the average and by far the most usual thickness being between 15 feet and 20 feet. In some cases, as at Baremoor in the Congreaves district, they contain ironstone, there called "Ballstone," as also at Coseley, Gornal, and in the Chillington field, in which latter place there are two courses of ironstone called "Bindstone."

At Bentley the beds next below the Heathen coal are as follows:—

Clunch	0	10
Clunch and ironstone	9	0
Ironstone (Lambstone)	0	3
Clunch	2	6
Black batt	1	0
Ironstone (Brownstone)	0	6
Clunch, ironstone, and black batt	3	3
Other measures, with some ironstones	14	10
New Mine ironstone	1	6
	33	8

The ironstone called Brownstone resembles the Black band of Scotland, and is the only ironstone of that quality known in the South Staffordshire coal-field. The Lambstone and Brownstone are not known south of the Great Bentley fault, neither do they range very far to the north of it.

20. (I. 7.) New mine ironstone, or White ironstone.—This is perhaps the most widely-diffused bed of ironstone in the whole district, as it occurs and is worked from Bentley near Walsall on the north to Hawne near Halesowen on the south. The measures consist almost invariably of clunch, though sometimes they are called clod, or binds; they are always, therefore, of some form of clay; they contain from two to four bands or courses of ironstone, each of which varies from an inch to a foot in thickness. The whole measure is generally 4 feet or 5 feet in thickness, sometimes as little as 2 feet, sometimes, but very rarely, as much as 10 feet.

The following are some details of this measure from different parts of the field:—

*Northern part of Bentley estate.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Ironstone			0	3
Clunch	0	7
Ironstone			0	4
Clunch	3	3
Ironstone			0	4
	3	10	0	11
Total with clunch			4	9

*Highfields, near Bilston.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Ironstone			0	3
Clunch	1	10
Ironstone			0	3
Clunch	1	10
Ironstone			0	6
	3	8	1	0
Total with clunch			4	8

*Chillington, near Wolverhampton.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Top ironstone			0	3
Clunch	3	3
Bottom ironstone			1	6
	3	3	1	9
Total with clunch			5	0

*Foxyardsy near Dudley.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Ironstone	0	5
Clunch	1	6
Ironstone	0	1
Clunch	1	3
Ironstone	0	3
	2	9	0	4
Total with clunch			3	6

*Gornal Clayworks.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
White clunch	1	6
Ironstone			0	3
White clunch	2	0
Dark clunch	1	0
Ironstone			0	3
	4	6	0	6
Total with clunch			5	0

*Corbyns Hall.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Top ironstone			0	9
Clunch	5	6
Bottom stone			1	0
	5	6	1	0
Total with clunch			7	3

*Dudley Woodside.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Ironstone			0	2	½
Clunch, &c.	4	0	–
Ironstone			0	3	½
	4	0	0	6	.
Total with clunch			4	6	.

Around Dudley and to the south-west of it, as also east as far as Oldbury, on the one side, and north to Ettingshall-lane on the other, the most usual name for this measure is White ironstone. Within these limits it is almost the lowest bed from which ironstone is gotten, and is that on which of late years the principal dependence has been placed. To the north-west, around Wednesbury and Bilston, and between Wolverhampton and Walsall, this measure is invariably called New mine stone, and in that district it is one of the uppermost ironstone measures, much richer and more important beds being there found below it.

21. (I. 8.) Intermediate measures containing the Pennystone ironstone, called also the Bluestone and the Cakes.—These beds are almost invariably dark clunch. They are called sometimes black clod and black ground. They contain sometimes throughout their mass, sometimes only in the lower portion of it, flat roundish nodules of ironstone, generally of a dark colour, and sometimes black, so as to be distinguishable from the New mine Whitestone above them, both in form and colour. The ironstone is sometimes called Blue ironstone, or the Cake ironstone,^[36] as well as Pennystone. South and west of Dudley they rarely contain ironstone, and the whole mass scarcely ever exceeds 5 feet in thickness, being frequently altogether absent, the only exception I know being at the Graveyards near Lower Gornal, where they are described as "Pennystone measure, 18 feet." In the centre of the field between Dudley and Wednesbury ironstone is likewise often absent, as at Tipton Moat colliery, where we have only "dark ground 20 feet." South of that, however, towards Oldbury, ironstone is got from these bods under the name of Cakes or Bluestone; and northwards between Wolverhampton and Walsall, the Pennystone measures are mentioned in nearly all the sections, with a variable thickness of from 10 to 25 feet, sometimes generally, as occupying all the space between the New mine stone and Sulphur coals, sometimes, as at Ettingshall Lodge colliery, in the following form:—

	FT.	IN.
New mine stone, in two measures	3	3
Dark clunch	9	0
Pennystone measures	6	0
Sulphur coal	2	6

To the paleontologist it will be interesting to know that^[37] marine shells in considerable abundance occur near Oldbury in the lower part of the New mine stone and the upper part of the Pennystone, like those so well known in the neighbouring coal-field of Shropshire. They are, however, confined to a very small district between Oldbury and Portway. In one mass of ironstone Lingula were mingled with the common shells called Unio^[38] which are so abundant in many of the ironstones; but it appeared that generally where undoubtedly marine shells were present these so-called Uniones were absent. Lingulæ are also found in other parts of the coal-field and in lower measures. The Producta was observed by me in 1858 as occurring also in considerable abundance in the "White" ironstone between Rowley Regis and High Haden.

22. (XIX.) Sulphur Coal.—This is called as frequently the Stinking coal. It is, I believe, rarely used, on account of its impure and sulphureous qualities. It is, however, mentioned in its proper place in nearly every section we have over the whole district from Hawne, where, with a batt, it is 2 ft. 6 in, thick, up to Bentley and the Brown Hills, where it is generally stated as from 1 foot to 4 feet in thickness. At Coneygree near Dudley it is said to be 6 feet thick; and at Tipton-green the Stinking coal and batt is described as having a thickness of 9 feet. Generally its thickness varies from 2 feet to 4 feet, except around Corbyn Hall and Shut End, where it is often only 2 or 3 inches thick.

At the Cathedral pits in the Rising Sun trough at the Brown Hills, the Sulphur or Stinking coal occurs at a depth of 250 feet, a depth which should bring in the Heathen coal and Thick coal, if the beds in the northern part of the field retained the same structure which they have in the south. The following is an abstract of the section there:—

			FT.	IN.		FT.	IN.
1.		Soil, and clay, sand and gravel	45	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	81	0
2.		Black and grey clunch	35	6		81	0
3.	Coal,	believed to be the Bentley Hey coal				3	10
4.		Fire-clay, with small brown ironstone	7	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	33	8
5.		Dark shales and ironstone	2	5
6.		Dark shales	24	3
7.	Coal^[39]					1	1
8.		Shale, binds, and rock binds	24	10	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	27	1
9.		Shale, with ironstone^[40]	2	3		27	1
10.	Coal	of bad quality^[40]				0	6
11.		Bastard fire-clay, with ironstone balls^[40]	9	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	38	4
12.		Dark shales and white rock	29	4		38	4
13.	Coal	(Heathen)				2	6
14.		Fire-clay and shale	4	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	62	0
15.		Dark shale, with nodules of ironstone^[41]	6	6
16.		Ditto, with clay ironstone and brown ironstone^[41]	2	10
17.		Light coloured fire-clay, shale and rock binds	24	0
18.		Dark shale, with measure of ironstone^[42]	16	6
19.		Dark shale	7	8
20.	Coal	(Sulphur or Stinking)				1	8
						251	8	^[43]

The next coal there below this Stinking coal is a coal which we shall afterwards prove to be the top of the New Mine.

There can be little doubt that the beds containing ironstone which come above this Sulphur coal are the representatives of those just described as the Pennystones and New Mine ironstones, and that the coal No. 13 is the true Heathen coal; while the beds numbered 9, 10, and 11 are probably the little Gubbin ironstone and coal, as it makes its appearance at Bentley; and coal No. 7 is the Bind coal which comes in at Bentley with the same thickness, but associated with ironstone.

23. Beds between the Sulphur and Xew mine coals.—In the Priestfield colliery between Bilston and Wolverhampton there is in one pit 99 feet of binds and rock in this position, and in all the adjoining collieries there are 70 feet or 80 feet of the same materials, the sandstone predominating and passing under the name of the New-mine-coal rock, or the Twenty-yard rock. This mass of rock is variably split up with rock -binds and peldon, sometimes with clunch. There is often above it a bed of fire-clay or of clunch a few feet in thickness, supporting the Sulphur coal, but that is frequently absent, and that coal rests directly on the sandstone. Going north towards Bentley the thickness of these measures diminishes to about 30 feet or 40 feet. Going south from Bilston they are still 70 feet at Highficlds, consisting of rock and peldon; but at Deepfields there is only 5 feet of fire-clay and 40 of binds, and at Tipton Green but 15 feet of rock, which at Foxyards ¤seems to altogether die out, and 2½ feet of fire-clay alone to interpose between the Sulphur coal and those below it These great variations in thickness seem to take place principally in the sandstone, which, for instance, about Coseley is only 15 feet thick, while it is more than 60 feet not half a mile off. North of Darlaston, between the Ranters* chapel and Darlaston Forge, the New mine rock, having gradually thinned out from Bilston to a thickness of 9 feet only, suddenly swells out to 78 feet with such rapidity that it was described to me at first as a "fault," by which the Heathen coal and upper measures were thrown up 60 feet or 70 feet.^[44]

The sandstone known as the New-mine-coal rock extends even as far as the Brown Hills where it is known as the Yard-coal rock, the Yard coal being the upper and separated part of the New mine. The rock is there 30 feet thick.

24. (XX.) New mine Coal.—This coal has its normal development in the district between Wolverhampton and Bilston, where it is very regular, and is always 6 or 7 feet in thickness. It is split into two, occasionally, by a thin parting of batt of some 6 or 8 inches. This parting is a little more pronounced at Monmore colliery, north of Willenhall,^[45] where we have the following section:—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			3	9
Batt	1	2
Coal			4	6
	1	2	8	3

and about a mile north-east of that, around Bentley, the New mine coal is divided into two by measures which vary from 30 to 50 feet in thickness, composed partly of clay, but principally of sandstone.

These two coals there lose their name of the New mine, and are called respectively the "Yard coal" and the "Five-foot coal," or in some cases the "Four-foot coal," as shown in the following sections:—

*Bentley Heath.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Yard coal			3	3
Fire-clay	1	5
Rock	0	8
Clunch	3	0
Rock	35	6
Five-foot coal	5	0
	40	7	8	3

*Birch Hills Colliery.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Yard coal			3	0
Fire-clay	3	0
White rock	6	0
Peldon	6	0
Rock binds	22	6
Four-foot coal			4	0
	46	6	7	0

Still farther north, about the Brown Hills, we have the following section:—

	FT.	FT.
Yard coals		3
Fire-clay	5
Rock	40
Bass coal		6
	45	9

In this part, though only removed a very few miles from the Willenhall and Bentley district, the terms New mine, &c, are entirely unknown, and the identity of the Yard coal and Bass coal with the New mine quite unsuspected^[46] (see Vertical Sections, sheet 26, Nos. 41, 42, 43, and 46). It is remarkable that in these and in most other cases of which I have the details, the two coals, though so widely separated, preserve the aggregate thickness of 6 or 7 feet, sometimes increasing to 8 or 9.

If we proceed from Bilston towards the south, we find that between Bilston and Tipton the New mine coal is either divided and increased, or other small coals come in just below it, and are naturally classed with it; for instance, we have the following sections:—

*Bilston Meadow*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			5	0
Parting	1	3	–
Coal			4	4
Parting	Parting	0	4	–
Coal			4	4
	1	7	11	4
Total with partings			12	11

*Highfields.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			6	0
Parting	2	10
Coal			5	0

	2	10	11	0
Total with partings			13	0

*Lower Bradley.*
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal	5	5
Parting	2	1
Coal	2	0
Parting	0	6
Coal	3	0
	2	7	10	5
Total with partings			13	0

Still further south, however, at Tipton Moat colliery, the New mine coal is only 5 ft. 6 in.; at Tipton Green, 6 ft. 6 in., with a parting; and at Coneygree, near Dudley, 6 ft.

Going thence north-west to the Fox-yards, this coal thins to 4 ft.; and at Upper Gornal clay-works it is only 2 ft, thick.

Similarly to the east, it is only 1 ft. 6 in, at Messrs. Houghton's Whimeey colliery, near Oldbury.

In a cutting of the South Staffordshire Railway, near the Dudley "Castle foot pottery," the New mine and lower coals were distinctly seen cropping out to the surface, with a thickness of several feet, as also in the cutting on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, on the south-west side of Dudley.

Proceeding farther towards the south-west, they appear rapidly to thin out, and finally disappear. A few deep sinkings have been made in this south-western district, in some of which, coals answering, perhaps, to the New mine and those below it, have been passed through, but in so debased a form that it is doubtful whether they are really the same beds, or other little coals occurring here and there near their place.

At the "Graveyard" trial pits, for instance, south of Lower Gornal, below the Sulphur coal, measures were found 22 feet 6 inches thick, consisting partly of clunch and fire-clay, but containing 15 feet of rock; and below them was a coal 1 foot 10 inches thick, believed to be the New mine.

At Upper Gornal clay-works there are 19 feet of measures, containing 7 feet of rock between the Sulphur coal, and the 2 feet of coal which represents the New mine.

Near Corbyns Hall, in three shafts, there was a coal 1 or 2 feet thick, which was from 45 to 60 feet below the Sulphur coal; the intermediate measures having several beds of rock, amounting altogether to upwards of 20 feet.

At Shut End the beds below the Sulphur coal are almost all fireclay, but 10 or 12 feet of it is described as gritty, and at a depth varying from 15 to 30 feet is a small coal 1 foot 6 inches thick.

At the Oak Farm colliery there is a coal 1 foot 6 inches thick, 39 feet below the White stone measures.

At a deep sinking of Mr. Benjamin Gibbons's, at the Level colliery north-east of Brierley Hill, there were found below the Sulphur coal 35 feet of measures, of which 16 were rock; and below these was a small coal 1½ foot thick, which likewise may represent the New mine coal.

At the Ley's iron-works, north-west of Brierley Hill. Mr. Firmstone sank 280 feet below the Thick coal. Below what is probably the Sulphur coal he met with 22 feet of measures, containing 11 feet of rock, when he came on a "rubble" coal 1 foot 2 inches thick, which may perhaps be the New mine.

South of these two places no deep trials were ever made, except in the instance of the Blackheath colliery, south of Rowley Regis; and there nothing was found that could be at all supposed to represent the New mine coal, or any of the beds below it. (See Vertical sections, sheet 17 and 18.)

25. (I.9.) Measures between the New mine and Fire-clay coals, containing occasionally the Fire-clay Balls ironstone.—There is scarcely any group of beds in the whole coal-field which exhibits such rapid and strongly-marked variations as this group. Even in the limited district of the Stow Heath and Priestfield collieries, between Wolverhampton and Bilston, these beds vary from 2 or 3 feet of "binds" to 39 feet of "rock," with a little fire-clay above and below it (Vertical Sections, sheet 16. No. 10). Over the whole district in which the two coals occur, the changes in the beds between them are equally marked, even in closely adjacent localities.^[47]

For instance, at the Chillington colliery they contain only batt and fire-clay, 4 to 9 feet thick; while a mile south of it, at Cockshutts, the beds are—

	FT.	IN.
Clod	5	0
Rock	26	7
Fire-clay	3	0
	34	7

At Ettingshall Lodge colliery they have—

	FT.	IN.
Batty fire-clay	5	9
Rock and rock-binds	18	6
Dark clunch	3	7
	27	10

While at Ettingshall Lane colliery, one mile south, there are only 2 feet of fire-clay.

In the central part of the field, south of Bilston, we get the following sections:—

*Bradley Lodge.*
	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay and batt	4	8
Dark ground	3	0
Fire-clay and ironstone balls	3	9
	11	5

*Lower Bradley.*
	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay	9	8
Little coal	0	10
Fire-clay	6	0
Rock	3	0
Fire-clay balls, an occasional ironstone	4	0
Dark ground	26	6

Around^[48] Highfields, Deepfields, and Tipton colleries there are only 2 to 4 feet of fire-clay, clunch, or binds; but at Coneygree, near Dudley, these beds again swell out to the following section:—

	FT.	IN
Fire-clay	2	0
Rock-binds	8	0
Rough rock	3	6
Binds mixed with peldon	4	0
Fire-clay balls ironstone	4	0
Hard rock	3	6
Batt	1	2
	26	2

We will leave the attempt to trace these beds south and west of Dudley till after the description of the Fire-clay coal. Going north from the district already described, (north of Willenhall that is,) we find these beds to have a more constant character than elsewhere, always preserving a thickness of more than 20 feet, and consisting of alternations of rock, fire-clay, and clunch, as the three following sections will show:—

*Central Part of Bentley Estate.*
	FT.	IN
Batt, fire-clay, and binds	8	8
Rock	1	4
Binds	7	4
Rock	0	8
Binds and ironstone	4	0
Coal	0	7
Fire-clay and binds	9	0
	31	7

*Dudley Brothers Colliery, between Bloxwich and New Invention.*
	FT.	IN
Batt and fire-clay	6	0
Rock binds	17	10
Black batt	0	6
White rock	1	8
Batt	2	0
White rock	0
Black batt	1	7
	32	7

(See Vert. Sects., sh. 18, No. 29.)

Brown Hills Colliery.

Fire-clay	2
Rock	27
	29

26. (XXL) Fire-clay coal.—We will again take the Stow Heath and Priestfield collieries, between Wolverhampton and Bilston, as the typical locality for the description of this coal. It has there an almost invariable thickness of 9 or 10 feet, with or without a "parting;" and at a distance of 1 to 3 feet below it is another small coal called there " the Little coal." The following is the section of a shaft a little east of Stow Heath Furnace:—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay coal, top			6	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	9 feet
Parting	1	0	—
Fire-clay coal "holers" ^[49]			3	0
Slummy batt	2	6	—
Little coal			2	6
	3	6	11	6

This thickness and arrangement of beds, with some slight variations, seem to prevail through the Chillington, Rough Hills, and Parkfield collieries down to Coseley, and also about Deepfields, Dockmeadow, and Highfields.

In other places, however, both north towards Bentley and south towards Dudley, the Little coal is entirely wanting, and the Fire-clay coal much altered in thickness. In the northern direction we have the following sections (see Vertical Sections, sheet 16, Nos.6, 11, sheet 26, No. 45):—

*Trentham Colliery, between Wednesfield and Willenhall.*^[50]
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			1	2
Parting	1	0
Coal	2	4
Parting	1	0
Coal			0	10
	7	0	4	4
Total with parting			6	4

*Sandbeds between Wilenhall and Bentley.*^[51]
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			1	2
Parting	0	9
Coal			2	8
	0	9	3	10
Total with parting			4	7

*Bentley Heath.*^[51]
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal	2	1
Fire-clay	0	7
Coal			1	2
	0	7	3	3
Total with parting			3	10

On the southern side of Stow Heath we get frequent sudden changes even in spots surrounded by places before mentioned. At Friezeland colliery, for instance, just south of Priestfield, there is only "batt and coal, 2 feet," to represent the Fire-clay coal. At Lower Bradley we have "coal and batt, 5 feet," but at Mr. Addenbrook's colliery at Upper Bradley, there is a little coal above instead of below the Fire-clay coal, as follows:—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			0	6
Black batt	5	0	–
Fire-clay coal	5	4
	5	0	5	10

Similar to this is a section at Tipton Green (Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 12), where the only representative of the Fire-clay coal is,—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			0	3
Fire-clay	5	0	–
Coal and batt			2	6
	5	0	2	9

The section at Tipton Moat is the same, except that the lowest coal is only 10 inches thick. At Gornal clay- works there is simply 2 feet of poor coal ; at Darlaston the same ; and at Dudley Port, 2 feet 6 inches. At the Foxyards, however, we have the two following sections:—

*The Sinking Pit*^[52]
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Little coal			1	6
Fire-clay	1	6	–
Coal			0	7
Fire-clay	2	5	–
Coal			2	7
	3	11	4	8
Total with partings			8	7

*Another Pit.*^[53]
	FT.	IN.
Coal			2	7
Parting	1	9	–
Coal			1	4
	1	9	3	11
Total with partings			5	8

If now we pass into the district south and west of Dudley the same remarks will hold good as to the "Fire-clay" that were used respecting the "New mine coal," but to a still greater extent. There are but five shafts of which I have sections, in which any coal near its place is mentioned. Of these one is the Grave-yard Trial pits,^[54] south of Gornal, where below what is supposed to be the New mine coal we get,—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Rock and fire-clay	5	9	–
Coal (possibly the Fire-clay)			1	8
	5	9	1	8

Two shafts near Corbyns Hall give below what is there believed to be the New mine coal:—

	FT.		FT.	FT.
Fire-clay	10	to	12	–
Coal				1
	12			1

At Shut End we get below the supposed New mine coal the following beds:—

	FT.	IN.
Gritty and strong fire-clay	16	4
Coal and batt	1	6
Hard and white rock	10	4
Coal	2	8
	30	10

Which (if either) of these may represent the Fire-clay may be reasonably a matter of doubt (see Vertical Sections, sheet 18, No. 31). At Mr. Gibbons's deep sinking at the Level near Brierley Hill, there was below the supposed New mine coal,—

	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay	7	0
Clunch with balls of ironstone	4	0
Binds	2	3
Coal and batt, possibly Fire-clay coal	1	6
	14	9

At Mr. Firmstone's deep sinking at the Leys, however, not a trace of coal had been met with below that which we have already designated the New mine, although the sinking was continued for upwards of 77 feet.

27 to 31. (I. 10, 11, 12.) Measures between the "Fire-clay coal" and the " Bottom coal" including t/ie Getting rock ironstone, the "Poor robin ironstone" and the "Rough Hill White ironstone."^[55]

The total thickness of these beds varies commonly from 20 to 30 feet in the district where they are most worked, namely, between Wolverhampton and Walsall. The upper measure is generally fire-clay or clunch, supporting the Fire-clay coal and varying in thickness from 2 to 10 feet. This, however, is sometimes entirely wanting, and the Fire-clay coal rests directly on a "strong rock" or hard sandstone. This rock sometimes contains so much ironstone, either in plates or nodules, as to be worth getting. Beneath this is either more "rock" or else "batt," "clunch," or "binds," several feet in thickness, and then a measure always of argillaceous materials containing either nodules or courses of ironstone, which is the "Poor robin." Immediately beneath this, or sometimes with a few feet of rock, or binds, or clunch interposed, come the Rough Hill White ironstone measures. This ironstone is very local, being only fouund between Darlaston and Wolverhampton in sufficient quantity to be worth working. At Parkfields, south of Wolverhampton, the whole measure is 19 feet 2nbinches thick, with 11 bands of ironstone in it, but elsewhere, even when it occurs, it is rarely more than 2 to 4 feet in thickness.

The following are a few selected sections of this group of beds:—

*Bentley*^[56]
	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay	1	4
Clunch and binds	19	4
Rock	4	0
Binds and clunch	12	2
Clunch and ironstone, probably Proor robin	2	8
Whitestone (iron)	4	11
	44	5

*Stow Heath.*^[57]
	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay	3	0
Slums	3	0
Getting rock	4	0
Black batt	7	6
Poor robin	2	6
Black batt	9	0
Whitestone	2	3
	31	3

*Priestfield.*^[58]
	FT.	IN.
Black clod	10	0
Poor robin	4	0
Light clod	7	0
Whitestone	2	6
&nbsp	23	6

*Ettingthall Lodge.*^[59]
	FT.	IN.
Getting rock	4	9
Stratified grey rock	1	4
Batt, inflammable	7	7
Poor robin	3	6
Batt, inflammable	5	0
Whitestone	3	6
	25	8

(Vert. Sects., sheet 16, No. 8.)

*Deepfields.*^[60]
	FT.	IN.
Getting rock	5	0
Poor robin	3	3
Whitestone	3	0
Ironstone balls and gubbin	4	9
Fire-clay	10	6
	26	6

*Bradley.*^[61]
	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay	6	0
Rock	0	7
Ironstone balls	1	6
Rock binds\|12	6
Poor robin	4	11
Black batt	3	11
Whitestone	3	9
	33	4

If we proceed, from the district thus characterised, farther south, we find one or both of the ironstones quickly disappearing, and the total thickness of the beds diminishing sometimes to only 8 feet. At Highfields for instance, although there is still ironstone, the beds between the Fire-clay and Bottom coals are only two measures of clunch, with ironstone balls, each 4 feet thick.

Elsewhere we get the following section:—

*Lower Bradly.*^[62]
	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay	9	0
Getting rock	9	0
Dark ground	17	6
	35	6

*Coseley.*^[63]
	FT.	IN.
Rock	6	6
Ironstone measures	4	6
Binds	5	6
	16	6

*Near Cann Lane.*^[64]
	FT.	IN.
Strong rock	28	0
Black batt	3	0
	31	0

*Near Darlastorn.*^[62]
	FT.	IN.
Brown bastard fire-clay	10	9
White rock	0	3
Brown clunch	6	0
	17	0

*The Foxyards.*^[65]
	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay rock	2	0
Dark rock	3	0
Fire-clay balls (Poor robin ?)	3	6
Ironstone (Rough Hills White	2	6
	11	0

*Tipton Green.*^[66]
	FT.	IN.
Rock	9	5
Rock, with balls iron stone	1	11
Rock	6	10
	18	2

32. (XXII.) The Bottom Coal.^[67]—In the part of the coal-field near Wolverhampton, this coal has a pretty uniform thickness of about 12 feet, as in the following section given me by Mr. W. Ward, from a pit a little south of Stow-heath furnace:—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Gainies (inferior coal)^[68]			2	0
Top coal			5	0
Parting	1	0	–
Holers coal			4	0
	1	0	11	0
Total with parting			12	0

This condition of the Bottom coal extends generally from Wolverhampton to Willenhall, Bilston, Darlaston, and Coseley.

Outside of those limits, however, the variations in the character of the Bottom coal are many and sometimes come in suddenly. Even within those limits we have the following sections:—

*Parkfield.*^[69]
FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			4	9
Parting	0	8	–
Holers coal			1	0
	0	8	5	9
Total with partings			6	5

*Ettingshalls Lodge near Catchem's Corner.*^[69]
FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Gainies, bad coal			1	6
Parting batt	0	4	–
Top coal	5	3
Parting batt	10	0	–
Holers coal			4	6
	10	4	11	3
Total with partings			21	7

*Dockmeadow, south of Bilston Ironworks.*
FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			4	6
Rock	6	0
Rock binds	3	0
Ironstone balls	1	0
Rock binds	4	0
Coal, believed to be Holers			3	0
	14	0	7	6
Total with other beds			21	6

These three places lie in a straight line about one mile in length, and running nearly west-north-west and east-south-east.

About a mile south of Bilston, at Highfields and Bradley, the Bottom coal is only 3 or 4 feet thick. At Tipton Moat Colliery it is 9 ft. 6 in., from which 2 ft. 6 in. must be deducted for three "parting batts;" at Tipton Green there is said to be "coal and batt," 11 ft. 9 in.; and at the Foxyards, 9 or 10 feet of coal. Farther south, however, at Coneygree and Dudley Port, the Bottom coal, if it exist at all, is not more than a foot or so in thickness.

At Shaver's End, just north of Dudley, the following was the section in a trial pit of Lord Ward's:—

FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
^[70]Coal			2	0
Parting	0	9	–
Coal			2	0
Parting	0	7	–
Coal			0	10
Parting	1	0	–
Coal			2	10
	2	4	6	10
Total with partings			9	2

And at Upper Gornal clayworks, the following beds represented the Bottom coal:—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
^[71]Coal			1	6
Parting	0	8	–
Coal			0	4
Fire-clay	1	2	–
Coal			2	0
	1	10	3	10
Total, including partings			5	8

A mile and a half south of this latter locality, at the Graveyards, in what we have spoken of as the south-western part of the coal-field, we get, below the little coal which we have already supposed to be the Fire-clay coal, a set of beds 28 ft. 5 in. in thickness, alternations of fire-clay, rock, clunch, and binds, and containing two " ball ironstone measures," which may perhaps represent the ironstones of the " Poor robin," and " Rough Hill White and below these, a coal 2 feet thick, which may probably represent the Bottom coal.

Similarly at Mr. Gibbons's Level colliery, there was found the following section:—

		FT.	IN.		FT.	IN.
1.	Coal and batt, supposed Fire-clay				1	6
2.	Fire-clay	6	3	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	20	11
3.	Strong dark clunch, with balls of ironstone	6	5
4.	Strong white rock	4	0
5.	Broad earth, with balls of ironstone	4	3
6.	Coal				1	0
7.	Black batt	0	5	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	6	1
8.	Fire-clay	5	8		6	1
9.	Coal and batt				1	5
					30	11

Of which beds 2 to 5 may represent those described in the last section (Nos. 27 to 31), and either 6 or 9, or the group of 6 to 9 inclusive, may represent the "Bottom coal." These are the only localities in this south-west district in which, so far as I am aware, any beds that can be compared with the Bottom coal of the Wolverhampton district have been met with.

We may now return to Willenhall, and trace the Bottom coal towards the north and east, namely, to Bentley, Bloxwich, and the Brown Hills. At the Trentham colliery, near Mumber-lane, the Bottom coal assumed the following form:—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
^[72]Coal			0	11
Parting	0	3	–
Coal			0	5
Parting	0	4	–
Coal			0	7
Parting	0	2	–
Coal			4	10
Fire-clay	1	6	–
Clod and stone	10	0	–
Rock binds	8	0	–
Batt	2	0	–
Holers coal			4	6
	22	3	11	3

At Monmore colliery, half a mile east of this, there was—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal			3	2
Fire-clay	6	9	–
Rock binds and ironstone	7	8	–
Fire-clay	18	4	–
Coal, holers			3	3
	32	9	6	5

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 18, No. 30.)

About Bentley the coals close together again with only a little batt between them, but make a total thickness of not more than 7 or 8 feet. This at the Birch Hills becomes 12 or 14 feet, with only 8 inches of batt; and it retains a thickness of 12 feet towards Bloxwich and Goscott.

For the space of a mile or so between the Birch Hills and Goscott this twelve-foot Bottom coal is called by the colliers the Four-yard or Thick coal, because it is thicker than any other coal thereabouts, and not with any reference to the true Thick or Ten-yard coal, of which most of them know very little, though it is worked within five miles of them.

The outcrop of the Bottom coal may be followed continuously from Bentley acros the Great Bentley fault by Ryecroft to Coal Pool, where it was formerly cut into, and in October 1858 might be seen in a large open work running for about 50 yards on the east side of the brook north-east of Goscott Lodge.

This part of the outcrop was cut off to the northward by a fault having a downthrow to the north of about 10 yards, but the coal had been worked formerly up to Pelsall Heath. Just at the southern corner of Pelsall Heath this twelve-foot coal was known from old workings to separate into two coals of 5 feet and 7 feet. This separation was the consequence of the coming in of some beds of shale and sandstone, which rather rapidly increased towards the north till they attained a thickness of 40 or 50 feet. The Bottom coal, thus separated into two, was worked formerly for some distance along the outcrop north of Pelsall Heath, till it was dropped out of reach of the "old men" by downcast faults into that which may now be called the High Bridge trough. The corresponding upcast faults on the north side of this trough brought these coals again near the surface about the Brown Hills, and they were there gotten both by the "old men," and the men of the last and present generation. All the way along these outcrops of the coals, or wherever they came within a sufficiently slight depth of the surface to be easily worked, they received the name of the Shallow coal and the Deep coal (Vertical Sections, sheet 26, Nos. 41, 42, 43, and 46).

The following are a few of the sections that show this northern expanded form of the Bottom coal:—

Messrs. Davis and Bloomer's Pit, No. 3, Pelsall Wood Colliery.

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Shallow coal			4	0
Fire-clay	3	0	–
Strong clod	30	0	–
Strong rock	12	0	–
Deep coal (roofs)			3 0
Fire-clay	2	6	–
Deep coal			5 0
	47	6	12	0
Total			59	6

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 43.)

High Bridge Colliery, about a quarter of a mile north-east of "The Moat."

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Shallow coal			5	2
Fire-clay	3	0	–
Rock binds	13	0	–
Hard grit and peldon	4	0	–
White grit rock	6	0	–
Rock binds	5	9	–
Hard grit	6	0	–
Deep coal (roof)			1	9
Clod	9	0	–
Deep coal			4	7
	46	9	11	6
Total			68	8

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 46.)

Cathedral Colliery, Brown Hills, just south of 120th milestone on Watling Street.

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Shallow coal			6	0
Fire-clay	2	0	–
Strong blue laminated shale	10	0	–
Rock binds	12	0	–
Strong rock, with dark shades	6	0	–
Shale, with ironstone layers	11	3	–
Deep coal (roof)			0	10
Dark shale	3	2	5	0
Deep coal			5	0
	44	5	11	10
Total			56	3

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 41.)

Conduit Colliery Brown Hills, north of Watling Street.

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Shallow coal			6	0
Bastard fire-clay	5	10
Rock binds	4	2
Rock, with peldon	7	7
Rock binds	2	9
Rock	2	4
Rock binds	25	7
Black batt	0	7
Deep coal (roof)			1	1
Fire-clay	3	7
Deep coal			5	0
	52	5	12	1
Total			64	6

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 42.)

Hammerwich Colliery, below the dam of the Reservoir.

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Coal (shallow)			7	1
^[73]Warren earth (fire-clay ?)	3	0	–
Grey leys	3	8	–
Rock binds	0	5	–
Metals (shales)	5	7	–
Rock	4	8	–
Blue metals	0	11	–
Rock binds	0	6	–
Blue metals	3	0	–
Rock binds	0	8	–
Blue metals	1	6	–
Rock binds	0	5	–
Metals and iron binds	25	1	–
Black shale	0	6	–
Coal(roof of deep)	–		0	7
Clod	0	6	–
Coal (deep)			5	2
	50	4	12	10
Total			63	2

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 2.)

33. Measures between the Bottom coal and the Gubbin and Balls ironstone.—The Bottom coal usually rests on a bed of fire-clay some feet in thickness. In many instances, however, this is wanting, and the coal rests on hard sandstone, the change from one material to the other being sometimes very abrupt. Wherever the Gubbin and Balls ironstone exists, it is found at a distance below the Bottom coal varying from 5 feet to 30 feet, the most usual distance being 15 or 20 feet. The beds between consist sometimes entirely of fire-clay, binds, clunch, or clod, or other argillaceous materials; sometimes these are variously split up by, and interstratified with rock or rock binds, and occasionally these sandy materials almost entirely replace the others. A little coal a few inches thick sometimes occurs in these beds, and the interposed beds of clunch sometimes contain scattered balls or nodules of ironstone.

34. (I. 13.) The Gubbin^[74] and Balls ironstone.—This set of beds, as a distinct and recognizable measure, containing ironstone worth getting, and regularly "gotten," is chiefly confined to the district around Wolverhampton, Bilston, and Walsall. The following section at Chillington colliery near Wolverhampton gives its best developed form:—

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Balls of ironstone			0	8
Clod	2	6
Balls of ironstone			0	6
Dark clod	1	6
Gubbin ironstone			0	6
Clod	1	0
Gubbin ironstone			0	3
	5	0	1	11

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 9.)

Measures similar in character, varying from 5 feet to 10 feet, and containing more or less ironstone, sometimes the Balls, sometimes the Gubbin being absent, and sometimes both found wanting, extend all over the district just mentioned. South of Bilston around Bradley they diminish to about 3 feet. At Tipton Moat colliery there is mentioned "binds with ironstone, 8 feet," about the place of the Gubbin and Balls, namely, at 10 feet below the Bottom coal, but at Coneygroe, Foxyards, Gornal, Shaver's End, and the neighbourhood of Dudley generally, there seems no trace of this measure.

The sole vague and uncertain trace of them in the south-western district is the mention in the Graveyard section of "ironstone balls 6 inches," at a depth of 5 ft. 6 in. below what is believed to be the Bottom coal.

Going north towards Bentley, we get, at the Island, the following section: —

	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Balls of ironstone			0	3
Clunch	2	0
Ironstone			0	4
Clunch	1	0
	3	0	1	0

As the representative of this measure in the central part of the Bentley district, and thence by Birch Hills and Bloxwich, there is only mentioned in the pit sections "gubbin 6 inches."

At one part of the Brown Hills, however, near Clayhanger. Samuel Arblaster found under the Deep coal—

	FT.	IN.
Fire-clay and clunch	13	6
Gubbinstone, balls of ironstone in two or three layers, and each 6 or 8 inches thick	3	0

At the deep sinking at Haddocks Moor too, near Pelsall Wood. Gubbin ironstone 2 feet 6 inches is mentioned, with 9 feet of Fire-clay between it and the Deep coal, and with a little 6-inch coal immediately under it. And at the Conduit Colliery at Brown Hills the following beds were found next below the Deep coal:—

	FT.	IN.
Bastard fire-clay	8	0
Black batt	1	6
Gubbin ironstone measures	3	6
Coal	0	11

Near Wolverhampton the Gubbin and Balls stone is a very well marked and easily recognizable kind Of stone. The large nodules are generally septarian, the septa being lined with white spar, crystals of carbonate of lime and carbonate of iron, together with crystals of iron pyrites, and not unfrequently of both galena and zinc blende.

35. Beds below the Gubbin and Balls, including 36. (XXHL) the "Singing" or "Mealy-greys" coal.—Wherever the Gubbin and Balls is mentioned in the sections as a recognizable measure, there is found just below it either a little bed of pure coal 6 or 8 inches thick, or a bed of "slum" (batty coal), which is often 2 or 3 feet thick, and sometimes more. In Cockshutts colliery only is there a thin bed of sandstone between this coaly material and the Gubbin and Balls.

At a distance below the Gubbin and Balls, which varies from 18 to 50 feet, there occurs a coal 2 to 4 feet in thickness, which is called sometimes the Singing^[75] coal and sometimes the "Mealy-grey"^[76] coal.

In the Wolverhampton district the thickness of the beds between the Gubbin and Balls and the Singing or Mealy-greys coal seems never to exceed 24 feet, nor fall below 18 feet, except where a bed of green rock or trap interposes. At Trentham new colliery, north of Willenhall, however, these beds are 35 feet, and towards Bentley, at "the Island," half a mile east of Willenhall, it is 50 feet, as also at the Monmore colliery. Farther north-east, however, about Birch Hills and Bloxwich, the thickness again diminishes to 33 feet or 26 feet, and the Singing coal itself is only 10 inches or 1 foot in thickness. At Haddocks Moor, the most northern locality where this coal has been pierced, it was found to be 1 foot 4 inches in thickness, and to lie at a depth of 48&nbspfeet 6 inches below the Deep coal, or 37 feet below the Gubbin ironstone. They passed also through another little 6-inch coal at a depth of 34 feet below the Mealy -grey coal. In the part of the field south of Bilston there is but little mention of this coal, but it appears in a section at Tipton-green,^[77] where, at a depth below the Bottom coal of 37 feet (excluding trap) there is "Singing coal 4 feet." If from this we take off a portion to include the Gubbin and Balls, &c., the remaining thickness will be very nearly equal to what these beds have near Wolverhampton.

In some parts between Wolverhampton and Bilston I believe the Singing or Mealy-greys coal is now "gotten" (1852), and is looked on by the iron-masters as a valuable help to their resources.

The materials composing the beds just described are generally an alternation of fire-clay, clunch, or binds, with rock or rock binds, sometimes the argillaceous, sometimes the arenaceous character predominating. In the neighbourhood of Bentley one or two little coals a few inches thick likewise show themselves.

37. Measures between the Mealy-grey coal and the Blue-flats ironstone.—Below the Singing or Mealy-grey coal we get a mass of beds consisting sometimes entirely of fire-clay, more frequently of alternations of fire-clay and rock, varying in thickness from 16 feet to 50 feet, before we reach the Blue-flats ironstone. As in the case of the beds above described, these measures are also thickest in the Bentley district, where they contain also one or two little beds of coal, and in their lowest portion some ironstone balls. The alteration in thickness in these beds is sometimes rapid, as in a colliery at Portobello near Wolverhampton, in two pits within 150 yards of each other, the beds consisting in both of fire-clay and rock, varied from 16 feet to 29 feet in thickness. Elsewhere about Wolverhampton they have a pretty constant thickness between 20 and 25 feet.

The two groups of beds, namely, those above and those below the Singing or Mealy-grey coal, while they each vary in thickness in different places, usually vary in such a way as to balance each other and maintain a certain mean aggregate thickness.

The aggregate thickness of the whole beds between the Gubbin and Balls, and the Blue-flats ironstones is, near Wolverhampton, never more than 53 feet nor less than 40 feet (exclusive of trap); but north and east of Willenhall, around Bentley, and up to Bloxwich, it is never less than 70 feet, and sometimes reaches 85.^[78]

It will be important to bear these facts in mind when we come to describe the trap rocks which have been intruded into these beds.

38. to 42. (I. 14, 15, 16.) The Blue-flats ironstone, together with the Diamonds and Silver threads ironstones.—We have now to describe the lowest recognizable measures in the whole of the South Staffordshire coal-field, those beneath which neither coal nor ironstone have ever been found that were of the least value.

The Blue-flats ironstone is confined absolutely as a workable measure to the district between Wolverhampton and Walsall, scarcely going south of Bilston, nor so far north as Bloxwich. It is an easily recognizable ironstone, as it occurs usually in regular bands a few inches thick, which are smoothly jointed, and are but slightly concretionary in structure. When brought to the pit bank the lumps of ironstone look like large rather irregular bricks; they are pale brown at first, but from exposure to the air assume a dull blue or purplish look. This colour, joined to the flat pavement-like form in which they are found below, gives them their name.

The ironstone usually occurs near Wolverhampton in two, three, or four regular bands, interstratified with clunch or clod, as in the following sections:—

The Cockshuts.^[79]
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Clod	4	0
Ironstone			0	4
Clod	2	0
Ironstone			0	2
Clod	3	0
Ironstone			0	3
	9	0	0	9
Park Hall.^[80]
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Top stone			0	6
Binds, &c.	2	0	–
Second stone			0	3
Parting	1	3	–
Third stone			0	4
Ground with chitterstone	4	2	–
Bottomstone			0	3
	7	5	1	4
Chillington.^[81]
	FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Stone			0	5
Clod	1	0	–
Stone			0	5
Clod	0	6	–
Stone			0	2
	1	6	1	0

The Blue flats are mentioned with a thickness of about 3 feet a Deepfields and Bradley, and as 5 feet thick at Darlaston; but what proportion of ironstone they contain there I do not know.

In some places near Wolverhampton mention is made of the "Bristol diamonds ironstone" just below the Blue flats. It seems there to be very poor and trifling; but ns we proceed to the north-east we find around Bentley and Walsall the Diamonds ironstone as rich and important ns the Blue flats, and, moreover, the "Silver threads" coming in between them, with much ironstone in bands and cakes in the intervening measures. The section here is of a totally different character from that near Wolverhampton, as may be seen by the following examples:—

*Bentley Estate*^[82]
			FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Blue flats	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Iron stone			0	4
		Binds	3	0	–
		Ironstone			0	1
		Binds	1	6	–
		Ironstone			0	2
		Binds with ironstone nodules	9	8	–
Silver threads	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Ironstone			0	1
		Binds	1	0	–
		Binds with ironstone	3	4	–
		Ironstone			0	2
		Binds	6	0	–
Diamonds	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Ironstone			0	3
		Binds	1	4	–
		Ironstone			0	2
		Binds	1	5	–
			27	3	1	3

(See Vertical Sections, sheets 16 and 26, Nos.nb6, 40, and 45.)

*Ryecroft, north of Walsall.*^[83]
			FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
Blue flats	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Ironstone cake			0	3
		Blue clod	1	0	–
		Ironstone			0	3
		Blue and white clod	3	7	–
		Ironstone balls, called grandads			0	8
		White clod	10	0	–
Silver threads	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Ironstone			0	3
		White clod	2	8	–
		Ironstone			0	4
		White clod	3	0	–
		Ironstone			0	3
		White clod	7	6	–
		Balls of ironstone (sometimes)			0	8
		White clod	7	0	–
Diamonds	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Ironstone			0	3
		Black clod	2	0	–
		Ironstone			0	4
			36	9	3	3

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 7.)

Going still farther north, again, the ironstones seem to be rapidly dying out and disappearing. At Dudley Brothers colliery, for instance, about half a mile west of Bloxwich, although these measure were still recognizable, they contained so little ironstone as not to be worth working ; while around Pelsall they sank at one place 150 feet below the Bottom coal without finding either coal or ironstone, till at that depth they came on a little "lean" ironstone, which was conjectured to represent the Blue flats.

43. The base of the Coal-measures.—It remains now only to investigate the nature and thickness of the beds that lie below the Blue flats and other ironstones, or, where those measures are not present, the lowest beds of the Coal-measures in each locality.

I may premise, that in the cutting of the railway near Trindle Gate, just east of Dudley, the base of the Coal-measures was very well exposed, resting on the Silurian shale, and exhibiting the following facts.

The Coal-measures here consisted of pale yellowish sandstones, many of them argillaceous (rock binds), with some small beds of shale or clay. The Silurian shale was a compact blue shale in thick beds, lying very regularly in a nearly horizontal position. At one part of the section some of the upper beds of the Silurian shale ended in a moderately sloped cliff, against which the sandstone of the Coal-measures abutted, while they reposed on the lower beds of shale that continued beneath them. As both groups of beds were nearly horizontal, no unconformity could be perceived between them, except just at the little Silurian cliff. Here the lamination of the sandstones became oblique, trying to conform to the slope of the cliff, and the lower beds of it, both near the cliff and for some yards back, contained pebbles and many small angular fragments. 'The pebbles were mostly white crystalline quartz, with some rolled pieces of ironstone. The angular fragments were chiefly Silurian shale and limestone. 'The cliff was about 20 feet high (see Fig. 11.)

Fig. 11.

a Coal-measuresb Silurian shale.

From this very instructive instance we learn generally how, with perfect apparent local conformability, there may be still on the large scale a very great amount of unconformability between two formations, and in this special case we see the nature of the relation between the Coal-measures and the Silurian, rocks of the South Staffordshire coal-field; that the Silurian rocks were greatly denuded and worn away, and cliffs and hollows formed in them, on, against, and over which the Coal-measures were deposited, both lying in a nearly horizontal position.

In the district south and west of Dudley there has been no pit sunk from any of the known beds of the Coal-measures down to the Silurian, unless they reached that formation in the Blackheath colliery, south of Rowley Regis (see Vertical section, sheet 18, No. 26). In that abortive search for valuable coal or ironstone, they reached, at 570 feet from the surface, the representative of the Thick coal in a debased and worthless form, and they sank to a depth of 121 feet below it, meeting with only a few trifling beds of coal or ironstone. At a depth of 661 feet from the surface, and 81 feet below the Thick coal, they met what is described as "red parting and limestone, 1 inch," and below that they found thick and regular beds of "rock binds," separated by inch partings of white clay. Now if the sinkers had never before worked in the Silurian rocks they might easily have described those as "rock binds," and they bored through precisely similar materials for 300 feet below the bottom of the shaft. This statement makes it very probable that the last 340 feet out of the 1,001 feet passed through altogether, consisted of Silurian shale, since it is totally contrary to the nature of the South Staffordshire Coal-measures to maintain one lithological character through so great a thickness. If these rock binds were Silurian shale, then there was only 81 feet of Coal-measures between it and the Thick coal in that locality.

The nearest deep sinking to this that I am aware of is the one at the Level colliery north-east of Brierley Hill, made by Mr. Benjamin Gibbons, and quoted by Sir R. I. Murchison in his Silurian System, p. 478. Of this pit we have already investigated the details, and endeavoured to identify the lower coals. The following abstract will give us all further necessary information about it:—

	FT.
To the bottom of the Thick coal	240
To ditto of 2nd Heathen ditto	18
To ditto of Stinking ditto	34
To ditto of New mine (?) ditto	37
To ditto of Fire-clay (?) ditto	15
To ditto of Bottom ditto	29
To ditto of (small coal and batt 8 in.)	19
Alternations of "rock," fire-clay, clunch, and binds, varying from 2 feet to 10 feet each	109
Dark gritty rock, with conglomerate	26
Light blue clunch	3
Below which they bored in red clunch	60
	590

Making a total of 217 feet below the Bottom coal, or 350 feet below the Thick coal, without meeting with anything that appears like Silurian rocks.

At the Leys ironworks, north-west of Brierley Hill, Mr. Firmstone sank a pit, as follows:—

	FT.
To the bottom of the Thick coal	492
To ditto of Heathen ditto	9
To ditto of Stinking ditto	10
To ditto of New mine (?)	24
Beds of fire-clay, rock, binds, red and grey clod, and red rock, 1 foot to 7 feet each	39
Red sandstone grit full of pebbles	38
	612

Making a total of 120 feet below the Thick coal; having reached which depth the water burst in on them with such force and rapidity as to oblige them to abandon the sinking.

It is singular that in each of these pits, although at different depths, the lowest beds were red, clunch in one case, (which might be marl,) and sandstone in the other. One might speculate on some beds belonging to the Old red sandstone having come in, were it not that many of the true Coal-measures, both above and below the Thick coal, contain much red and mottled marl and clunch.

At Corbyns Hall Mr. Gibbons sank 172 feet below the Thick coal, the bottom beds being alternations of clunch and rock binds, when a quantity of salt water rushed in with such force as nearly to drown the mines.

At Shut End mines Mr. Foster sank 111 feet below the Thick coal, passing 16 feet below the representative of the Fire-clay coal, and found much of the water in the lower measures very salt.

The following is a complete abstract of the Graveyard Trial pits, south of Lower Gornal:—

	FT.
To bottom of Thick coal	43
To„ bottom of„ Heathen do.	15
To„ bottom of„ Sulphur do.	43
To„ bottom of„ New mine do.	24
To„ bottom of„ Fire-clay	8
To„ bottom of„ Bottom	40
To bottom of another little coal passing through many beds of rock, &c.	112
Several beds of rock	21
	306

(See Vertical Sections, sheetnb18, No. 23, lower part.)

Making a total of 133 below the Bottom coal, or 263 feet below the Thick coal, without attaining the base of the true Coal-measures.

For ascertaining the exact thickness of Coal-measures between any known bed and the top of the Silurian formation in any part of the field, we have but scanty data in the pit sections. Even where it is certain, or highly probable, that the sinking was continued down into the Silurian rocks, we are often left to guess at the place of the exact boundary between the two formations, since the miners are but little apt to observe any distinction between the grey shales of the coal- measures and the shales of the Silurian series. Where the latter also are at all hard, or slightly arenaceous, the miners are likely to call them "rock binds," and we are thus liable to class them as Coal- measures. Mention, too, is sometimes made in the sections of a " blue rock now, whenever I have seen any beds thus described, I have always found them a compact slightly arenaceous clay rock, so greatly indurated as to form a hard tough stone : and, in sinking a shaft, the Silurian shale of this neighbourhood would be likely often to have these characters, and thus be called by the miners "blue rock." Whenever there is a white or strong brown rock mentioned, I should always consider it as part of the Coal-measures, because I have never seen or heard of any sandstones of that colour in the Silurian shales of this district ; and if it were limestone rock, they would almost cer- tainly have described it as such.

With these remarks I now lay before the reader the following ten extracts from pit sections, beginning at the most southerly, and pro- ceeding to the north and east : —

*1. Shaver's End, just north of Dudley.*
	Bottom coal	9	2
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Rock and clunch	39	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	68ft
	Ironstone measure may = Blue flats	7	0
	Fire-clay, rock, and pebbly rock	22	0
	Blue clunch	4	0
	Bavin and limestone	72	0
		153	2

(Vert. Sects., sheet 18, No. 36.)

2. *Dudley Port, Bagnall's Limestone Pit.*
	FT.	IN.
Bottom (?) coal	1	6
Fire-clay, black ground, rock binds, and rock	60	0
Bavin (Silurian shale)	69	0
Limestone	27	0
Limestone	24	0
	181	6

(Vert. Sects., sheet 16, No. 13.)

3. *Tipton Green.*
		FT.	IN.
	Bottom coal	11	9
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Fire-clay, rock,	37	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	71 ft.
	Singing coal	4	0
	White rock and pebbles	30	0
	Blue binds	130	0
		212	9

(Vert. Sects., sheet 16, No. 12.)

4. *Foxyards.*
		FT.	IN.
	Bottom coal	9	0
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Fire-clay, black ground, and rock	80	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	92ft.
	Ironstone (Blue flats?)	4	6
	Strong pebbly light coloured rock	7	6
	Strong blue rock	3	0
		137	0

5. *Tipton-moat.*
	FT.	IN.
Bottom coal	9	6
Fire-clay, black ground, binds, and ironstone, batt and coal, white rock, &c.	71	0
Blue rock and binds	112	6
Binds	17	0
Stone and binds	172	0
	382	0

-

6. *Deepfields.*
		FT.	IN.
	Bottom coal	12	0
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Rock, clunch, and rock binds	69	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	71ft. 6 in.
	Blue flats	2	6		71ft. 6 in.
	Blue rocky clunch	150	0
	Limestone	50	0
		263	6

7. *Parkfield, near Wolverhampton.*
		FT.	IN.
Bottom coal		11	2
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Various coal measures	68	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	133ft. 6in.
	Blue flats	10	9
	Diamond clod	2	3
	Strong white rock	22	6
	Dark slaty ground	30	0
Limestone bavin
		144	8

(Vert. Sects., sheet 17, No. 20.)

8. *Chillington Colliery, near Wolverhampton.*
		FT.	IN.
	Bottom coal	12	1
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Various coal- measures	89	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	91ft.6in.
	Blue flats	2	6		91ft.6in.
	Measures undescribed	240	0
	Limestone clunch, with small bands of limestone	210	0
		553	7

(Vert Sects., sheet 16, No. 9.)

9. *Bentley Limestone Pit.*
		FT.	IN.
Bottom coal		8	8
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Various coal-measures	89	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	146 ft.
	Blue flats, Silver threads, and Diamonds	28	0
	Binds, fire-clay, and rock	29	0
Binds and parting, Silurian		117	0
Binds with thin limestones		97	0
Little limestone		12	0
Shales with limestone		118	0
Thick limestone		33	9
Shales with limestone		18	0
		550	5

(Vert. Sects., sheet 16, No. 6.)

10. *Ryecroft.*
	FT.	IN.
Blue flats, Silver threads, and Diamonds	41	6
Rough rock	6	0
Limestone, clunch, binds, and partings	183	0
Little limestone	12	0
Limestone clunch, with hard limestone balls	120	0
Thick limestone	36	0
	398	6

(Vert. Sects., sheet 16, No. 7.)

In the first six of these sections there is a remarkable agreement in the total thickness of Coal-measures below the Bottom coal, supposing that in each case the "blue binds" or "blue rock," from its colour and its preserving a uniformity of structure through so much greater thickness than the Coal-measures usually do, be the Silurian shale. At Parkfield (No. 7), the beds below the Bottom coal are thicker than elsewhere, in consequence of the extra thickness in those between the Blue flats and the Silurian shale. At Chillington (No. 8), we have no means of ascertaining this point, or of saying anything more than that they were in the Silurian shale when they got down 240 feet below the Blue flats.

At Bentley, the Coal-measure beds below the Bottom coal have thickened to 146 feet, with 30 feet below the Blue flats group, while at Ryecroft there is only 6 feet of Coal-measures between that group and the top of the Silurian shale.

In all cases, the lowest beds of Coal-measures, where ascertainable, were found to be sandstone, generally containing pebbles.

Thickening in the lower beds of the Coal-measures as they range from south to north—In page 20 is given a table of the beds, with the minimum and maximum thickness of each, as described in the foregoing pages. If, looking at those below the Thick coal, the minima were added together, we should only have a thickness of 98 feet for the whole of the beds between the bottom of the Thick coal and the top of the Blue flats. If the maxima were added, on the contrary, we should have a total thickness of 539 feet. The mean of these two numbers is 318. Now it is a remarkable instance of the way in which the frequent variations in the thickness and character of the beds are equalized among themselves, and a certain mean thickness kept, that the mean of 13 pit sections, distributed pretty equally over various parts of the district, gives 322 feet as the actual mean thickness of the beds between the base of the Thick coal and the top of the Blue flats. If, moreover, we arrange these 13 sections in the order of their thicknesses, we shall find that that will very nearly be the order of their latitude, the thinnest section being the most southerly and the thickest the most northerly; the others being nearly regularly arranged between them. I add at the beginning a section still further south, at Foxyards, where it was doubtful whether the ironstone were the Blue flats or not; the probability of its being so having become much greater from the way in which it harmonizes with the other sections.

		Thickness between the Thick Coal and Blue Flats in Feet.
1.	Foxyards	240
2.	Bradley	270
3.	Deepfields	274
4.	Crabtree piece, near Bilston	290
5.	Stowheath.	300
6.	Friezland	302
7.	Stowheath	306
8.	Chillington Colliery	312
9.	Rough Hills	329
10.	Priestfield	333
11.	Ettingshall Lodge	336
12.	Bentley Estate	365
13.	Bentley, another shaft	378
14.	Bloxwich	395

This exhibits very clearly what has been before alluded to in describing these beds, the gradual thickening of them towards the north, the total section being 150 feet greater at one end than the other.

If we were to take the thickness of the beds from the base of the Thick coal to the base of the Bottom coal, we should get precisely similar results as a whole. As, however, we possess 30 sections, which include the necessary data for the Bottom coal, while we have only 13 for the Blue flats, we should expect to find one or two of them a little out of their place, owing to partial and strictly local thickening or thinning of a few beds simultaneously, while generally these variations in thickness balanced each other. I add this list arranged in order of thickness:—

		FEET.
^[84]1.	The Graveyards	120	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	The south-western district.
2.	The Level	133
3.	Upper Gornal	133
4.	Foxyards	159	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Between Dudley and Wednesbury.
5.	Tipton Green	160
6.	Coneygree	167
7.	Tipton Moat	167
8.	Bradley Lodge	176	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	All between the latitudes of Coseley and Bilston.
9.	Ettingshall, near Cann-lane	176
10.	Highfields	194
11.	Highfields	196
12.	Highfields	203
13.	Deepfields	205
14.	Bradley	213
15.	Dockmeadow	216
16.	Priestfield Furnace	225	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	All on or about the latitude of Bilston.
17.	Bilston Meadow	228
18.	Priestfield Colliery	229
19.	Friezland	232
20.	Crabtree Piece	240
21.	The Wallbutts	242
22.	Chillington Colliery	250	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	All north of Bilston, near Wolverhapton.
23.	Stowheath	253
24.	Rough Hills	256
25.	Bentley Heath	263	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Still farther north.
26.	Bentley Hall	265		Still farther north.
^[85]27.	Lower Bradley	266		South of Bilston.
^[86]28.	Ettingshall Lodge	270		Due west of Bilston.
29.	Bentley, northern part	276		North of 26.
30.	Bloxwich	291		North of 29.

It follows, from an inspection of this list, that our identification of the Bottom coal in the three sections in the district south and west of Dudley, namely, Nos, 1, 2, and 3, that identification being founded only on the details of the sections, is rendered still more probable, from its harmonizing so well with our general results. It agrees, also, well with the statements before given as to the splitting up and separation of the Thick coal towards the north, and the coming in of other beds in that direction not known towards the south, and shows that the thickening in those upper measures is only a still further carrying out of a structure or character common to the whole coal-field.

Connexion of the Wyrley and Essington district with the rest of the Coal-field.—_We have now given a detailed description of the beds constituting the Coal-measures of the central and southern portion of the field, and have traced the lower beds in detail as far north as the Brown Hills.

The Heathen and Sulphur coals were also traced in detail up to the neighbourhood of Bloxwich, and have been mentioned as forming the uppermost measure in some of the more western pits in the Brown Hills district.

The dip of the beds from Bentley to Bloxwich, and from Bloxwich all over the Pelsall and Brown Hills district is from east to west, at a low but steady angle of inclination. The dip of the beds at Essington and Wyrley is likewise from east to west at the same gentle angle. It follows that unless there be a great fault or a great flexure running north and south between Pelsall and Essington on the one side, and the Brown Hills and Wyrley on the other, that the beds which are worked along the eastern side of this portion of the field dip under those that are worked on the western side, and would be found underneath them if a sufficiently deep sinking were made.

Two such explorations have been made, as will be seen presently, one 8 boring and the other a shaft, and though not quite conclusive in their results, are yet in favour of that belief as far as they go.

Neither from Bentley nor from Pelsall have there been any continuous workings up to Essington and Wyrley, a width of a mile and a half or two miles of unexplored ground isolating the Essington and Wyrley collieries from the rest of the coal-field. It is believed, from some sinkings that were made formerly near the New Invention, and from other appearances, that this belt of unexplored ground is greatly cut up by sheets and masses of trap rock. We are accordingly left to the following evidence in order to connect the Essington and Wyrley beds with the other beds of the coal-field, and prove the statement made in the General Description (Chapter V.), that the coals there represent the Thick coals.

We have seen that the Bottom coal and the beds immediately above it are worked continuously from the neighbourhood of Bilston and Wolverhampton under the Bentley and Bloxwich districts, up to Pelsall and the Brown Hills; and that as they range from the former towards the latter, the measures increase in thickness, and beds which lie together in the southern part are, as they run north, split up by intervening measures and sometimes widely separated from each other. It will be remembered also that between Bilston and Wolverhampton the Thick coal has already lost the two upper beds, which have gone off as the Flying reed, and cropped out south of the Lanesfield fault, and that the remaining part is also separated into two masses by an intervening bed of shale 10 feet thick, called "Hob and Jack."

The measures rise from this district gently towards the north, the Thick coal cropping out directly, and the beds below it gradually and successively until at Bentley Hall and Deepmore Coppice the Bottom coal is but a little way below the surface of the ground.

A little north of Deepmore coppice a great fault running nearly east and west throws down the measures to the north to the extent of 360 feet so that the Bottom coal is then about 400 feet deep, with all the measures above it easily recognizable up to the Heathen coal, which is there about 144 feet deep. Now, as the Heathen coal about Bilston is never more than some 30 feet below the Thick coal, it follows that we ought to have, north of the Bentley fault, the Thick coal itself come 80 or 90 feet at least below the surface. What is really found there is the following:—

		FT.	IN.		FT.	IN.
1.	Soil, gravel and clay				21	11
2.	Coal (called Old man's coal)				9	7
3.	Fire-clay, clunch, rock, and binds	54	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	56	3
4.	Little coal	1	10
5.	Fire-clay	0	8
6.	Coal (called Bentley Hey coal)				5	0
7.	Fire-clay, rock, and binds	10	1	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	47	9
8.	Ironstone (called the Binds)	1	7
9.	Coal (called the Binds coal)	1	2
10.	Clunch and binds	6	6
11.	Gubbin ironstone	1	9
12.	Gubbin coal and batt	1	2
13.	Fire-clay	0	10
14.	Coal	0	7
15.	Binds	21	0
16.	Clunch and ironstone (Lambstone)	3	0
17.	Black batt	0	11
18.	Coal (Heathen coal)				1	8
					143	3

Of this set of beds. No. 11 is the same as the Little Gubbin, already described, farther south. It has, however, here two small coals below it, and the thickness between it and the Heathen coal is 4 or 5 feet greater than the thickness about Bilston.^[87] There is above the Little Gubbin, moreover, another small coal and ironstone (here called the Binds coal and ironstone), of which we have little or no trace to the southward;^[88] and we must look upwards of 19 feet above the Little Gubbin (instead of only 5 or 6, as near Bilston,) before we meet with any considerable bed of coal. We then get two beds of coal, (Nos. 4, 5, and 6,) 7½ feet thick together, including 8 inches of fire-clay between them, over which are 54 feet of alternations of fire-clay, clunch, binds, and rock, and then another bed of coal 9 or 10 feet in thickness. It is clear, nevertheless, from their position above the Heathen coal, that these latter coals, namely, No. 6, the "Bentley Hey," and No. 2, the "Old man's" coal, notwithstanding their being 54 feet apart, must be the representatives of the lower beds of the Thick coal.

Now, the Bentley Hey coal, and the Heathen coal below it, are found at intervals, and worked, north of Bentley, up to the New Invention and Bloxwich. They have never been worked quite continuously, as they are said to be frequently thrown in and out of the ground, not only by a succession of small faults and one large one, but also by several undulations of the beds.

The Bentley Hey four-foot coal has also been worked north of the New Invention, with a general dip to the west or W.N.W., that is in the direction of Essington.

In the cutting of the canal, just south of Sneyd Reservoir, the crop of a coal was seen which Mr. George, of Bentley, now informs me he believe to be this same Bentley Hey coal, and that its crop runs off towards Moseley Field; the dip being very gentle towards Essington. Wow supposing that it dips at an angle of 3° from the canal, just by Sneyd Pool, to Mr. R. Mills's Essington colliery, and that the ground 'was quite level, which it is nearly, and allowing the distance in a straight line to be 1⁴⁄₁₀ mile, or nearly 7,400 feet, the depth of this coal would be 392 feet from the surface at the Essington colliery. It would, however, have to cross the Old Mitre fault, which is a downthrow to the west of 65 yards (or 195 feet) thereabouts, so that the total depth of the coal would be (392 + 195 = 587 say) about 600 feet. Moreover, this Bentley Hey four foot-coal has in the Great Bentley trough another coal, called the Old Man's coal, 8 or 9 foot thick, at the height of 54 feet above it.

Now at the Essington colliery a Four-foot coal was found at a depth of 593 feet, and 38 feet above it was found a compound seam of coal, 8 feet 7 inches thick.

The probability is considerable that these are the very same coals which are known at Bentley as the Old man's 9 foot coal, and the Bentley Hey or Top four-foot coal.

Now, over this coal at Essington come all the Wyrley coals, presently to be described, and known as the Broach, Cannel. Charies, Yard, and Robins, all in their proper places, which proves this coal to be that which at Wyrley is called the Bottom coal or Eight-foot coal.

This coal which at Wyrley is called the Eight-foot or Bottom coal (because it is the lowest coal that has ever been worked in that district) is known all over the Essington and Wyrley district, and it is known to crop out finally^[89] about Jacob's Hall, and along a north and south line running parallel to and a little east of the turnpike road between Bloxwich and Clunch Bridge.

The late Mr. Gilpin had a boring made below the so-called Bottom coal, of which his agent, the late Philip Baker, of Landywood, gave me the following account:-—

	FT.	IN.
Coal (called Bottom coal)	7	0
Clunch with occasional ironstone	40	7
Coal	3	0
Fire-clay with alternations of clunch and rock	113	6
Coal	2	3
Clunch with small ironstones and some beds of rock	68	8
Coal	1	5
Clunch with little ironstones and some rock	38	3
Coal	2	0
Fire-clay, rock, and clunch	30	2
Coal	0	4
Fire-clay and clunch	10	2
Coal	1	6
Fire-clay and clunch	4	2
	323	2

The present Mr. Gilpin sank a shaft, at a place called Highfields, a little south of Church Bridge, to the depth of 211 feet (70 yards) below the so-called Bottom coal, of which the following is an abstract of the particulars as he communicated them:—

	FT.	IN.
Coal (called Bottom coal)	8	0
Fire-clay, black batt, and brown ironstone	4	1
Coal	0	6
Binds, clod, &c with ironstone	32	5
Coal	3	0
Fire-clay, binds, &c.	26	0
Coal	1	0
Fire-clay, clunch, binds, &c.	132	6
Coal (stinking)	1	2
Fire-clay	2	0
	210	8

The boring I esteem valuable solely as proving there was that much depth of Coal-measures below the Bottom coal, for I have long come to the conclusion that all indications of thickness of particular beds, &c, derived from borings are too uncertain to be depended on.

The existence of a Three-foot coal, however, about 37 or 40 feet below the Wyrley bottom or Eight-foot is proved from both the boring and the sinking. This is without doubt the Bentley Hey coal. The sinking places a foot coal at 26 feet below this Three-foot, and if the latter be the Bentley Hey coal the foot coal may possibly be the Heathen. At a depth of 132 feet 6 inches underneath this there is, according to the sinking, a coal called Stinking, 14 inches thick. This may very well be the true Stinking or Sulphur coal, which in the southern part of the field lies at a mean depth of 70 feet below the Heathen, though it is not more than 50 or 60 feet below it at Bentley and the Birch Hills.

I believe that Mr. Gilpin himself was convinced that the Stinking coal which he reached was the Top or Two-foot coal of the Brown Hills, which is almost certainly the true Sulphur coal, basing his opinion not only on the sulphureous quality of the coal, but on the occurrence of some igonstone measures above it, believed to be the Pennystone measures, and another which was recognized or supposed to be recognized as the New mine ironstone clod, although it was devoid of ironstone. If this be the Stinking coal, it follows that the Brown Hill and Pelsall coals may be found below it. In this opinion I entirely concur, though it is impossible to feel sure that the lower beds will retain the same thickness and value in the deep or western side of the field which they have on the eastern side.

If there should still rest any doubt upon anybody's mind as to the Wyrley and Essington coals being the representative of the Thick coal in an expanded form, perhaps the following argument may be conclusive. If these coals be other than the Thick coal they must be either above it or below it. If they are entirely above it then the Thick coal must lie in the district between Essington and Wyrley on the one side and Pelsall and the Brown Hills on the other, and must crop out to the surface in that district, inasmuch as beds, which are certainly below the Thick coal, themselves crop out to the eastward of it. It is not very likely, indeed we may say it is quite impossible, that such an outcrop of Thick coal could exist without having been long ago discovered, ranging, as it must do, for a distance of several miles between Bloxwich and Norton. .

If, on the other hand, it be supposed that the Wyrley and Essington coals belong to the beds below the Thick coal, then we have at the Essington colliery a thickness of nearly 600 feet of coal-measures full of good workable coals, to which we must add 280 feet for the depth of Mr. Gilpin's boring below the Three-foot coal which lies 40 feet below the so-called Bottom coal. We should then have a thickness of nearly 900 feet of coal measures below the Thick coal containing many thick and excellent coals, but totally different from the beds which are elsewhere to be found below the Thick coal, while in no other part of the coal-field is there a greater thickness below it than 400 or 500 feet at the very outside, the greatest known thickness being 840 feet.

This supposition then would involve still greater changes than are supposed on the other side, besides being opposed to all other species of evidence.

Details of Wyrley and Essington.—It would hardly be worth while to analyse the pit sections of Essington and Wyrley with the minuteness of detail which has been given to those of the central and southern portion of the field, even if we possessed the requisite materials. But as the coals themselves are the only beds of much value, there is little or no mention made of the nature of the substances that lie between them in most of the sections that have been supplied to us.

The ironstone that is considered of most value is one below the Yard coal of Wyrley, which is therefore called the Yard coal ironstone. Mr. Gilpin of Wedges Mills informs me that this resembles the black band of North Staffordshire, but that it varies a good deal in character. In one shaft the measure was 4 feet thick, the top stone being 4 inches, the middle 8 to 12 inches, and the bottom 3 to 5 inches; while in the next shaft there were two layers of top stone, one being very good, with occasional large balls of ½ to ¾ cwt, each. In another adjacent shaft there was in the place of the top stone "merely a white chalky stone, without any iron in it, or a trace of it." There is also another regular measure of ironstone a few feet below this, but it has never been found sufficiently good to work; and with the occasional exceptions mentioned above, and the ironstone immediately above the Bottom or Deep coal, all the ironstones found about Wyrley are very poor in quality.

Mr. Gilpin has lately communicated to me the following section of a pit in the Wyrley field which may be taken as a correct average account of the measures.

				FT.	IN.		FT.	IN.
1.	Above Robins coal			20	0		20	0
2.	Robins Coal						8	0
3.	Fire-clay and batts			14	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	18	0
4.	Ironstone measure			4	0
5.	Yard Coal	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Coal	3	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	5	3
			Fire-clay	1	6
			Coal	0	9
6.	Fire-clay			3	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	45	0
7.	Black batts, with two small bands of ironstone and nodules of ditto			4	6
8.	White clunch			10	6
9.	Black batts and dark ironstone, very thin in the ground			3	9
10.	Peldon			1	6
11.	Dark batts			3	9
12.	Fire-clay, rock and binds			18	0
13.	Charles Coal						3	0
14.	Fire-clay			7	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	62	6
15.	Rock Binds.			5	0
16.	Black batts			0	6
17.	Rough white fire-clay			5	0
18.	Black clod			1	6
19.	White clunch			6	0
20.	Ironstone			0	2
21.	White clunch			2	10
22.	Coal			1	0
23.	Brown fire-clay			6	0
24.	Black clod			1	0
25.	Fire-clay			5	0
26.	Dark clunch			6	0
27.	Binds and rock			3	0
28.	Clod			12	0
29.	Cannel Coal						4	0
30.	Fire-clay			4	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	74	0
31.	Dark Clunch			7	6
32.	White Clunch			19	6
33.	Strong fire-clay			4	0
34.	White Clunch			4	0
35.	Soft white fire-clay			3	0
36.	Soft-white clunch			12	0
37.	Strong white rock			10	6
38.	Strong white clunch			9	0
39.	Brooch Coal						3	9
40.	Clod			1	6		1	6
41.	Benches Coal						2	3
42.	Fire Clay			3	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	48	0
43.	Rock and binds			39	0
44.	Measures containing two bands of iornstone 4 inches each, and chance balls or iornstone called the Wyrley Bottom Coal stone			4	0
45.	Strong clod			2	0
46.	Wyrley Bottom or Deep Coal						8	0
							302	9

If to this we add the sinking at Highfields, of which the abstract given at p. 90, we shall have an accurate idea of the measures passed through in the Wyrley district.

		FT.	IN.		FT.	IN.
47.	Dark fire-clay	1	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	37	0
48.	Grey fire-clay	2	0
49.	Black batt	0	4
50.	Brown ironstone	0	3
51.	Coal	0	6
52.	Strong binds	4	0
53.	Ironstone	0	2
54.	Dark clod	1	3
55.	Brown ironstone	0	3
56.	Dark clod	1	3
57.	Grey clunch	1	8
58.	Ironstone	0	4
59.	Grey clunch	7	0
60.	Black batt	0	6
61.	Strong binds	3	0
62.	Ironstone of inferior quality	0	2
63.	Strong binds	6	0
64.	Ironstone of inferior quality	0	3
65.	Dark clod	2	2
66.	Ironstone of inferior quality	0	2
67.	Dark clod	1	11
68.	Ironstone	0	1
69.	Dark clod	2	3
70.	Coal, Bentley Hey, half inferior quality				3	0
71.	Dark fire-clay	4	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	26	0
72.	Grey fire-clay	4	6
73.	Strong binds	5	0
74.	Black batts	0	2
75.	Black rock	0	6
76.	Grey fire-clay	1	3
77.	Grey rock	8	0
78.	Grey fire-clay	2	0
79.	Ironstone	0	1
80.	Dark clunch	0	6
81.	Coal (? Heathen)				1	0
82.	Dark fire-clay	0	5	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	132	6
83.	Dark rock	4	4
84.	Peldon	1	2
85.	Dark rock	2	4
86.	Dark clunch	2	9
87.	Strong batt	1	4
88.	Dark clunch	3	0
89.	Black batt	0	6
90.	Grey rock	10	0
91.	Peldon	3	0
92.	Rock	3	0
93.	Grey clunch	5	0
94.	Hard grey rock	9	0
95.	Strong binds	30	0
96.	Grey fire-clay	9	0
97.	Ironstone of inferior quality	0	1
98.	Dark fire-clay	1	0
99.	Black batts with one 4 in. ball of ironstone	2	0
100.	Fire-clay	1	0
101.	Grey clod	4	0
102.	Blue binds	5	0
103.	Dark binds	8	0
104.	Light rock	3	0
105.	Dark binds	6	0
106.	Peldon	1	0
107.	Clod, supposed to be the New Mine ironstone clod, but not here containing workable ironstone	1	2
108.	Ironstone	0	2
109.	Dark clod	3	0
110.	Ironstone	0	3
111.	Measures, supposed to be those of the Pennystone ironstone, but not gettable	12	0
112.	Coal. Sulphur Coal, the equivalent of the Top or Two-foot coal of the Brown Hills				1	2
113.	Fire-clay	2	0		2	0
					202	8
	Adding the upper part of the section				302	9
	We get a total of				505	5

(See Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 3, and sheet 26, No. 39.)

It will also be advisable to give here in detail the section of Mr. Mills' Engine pit at Essington Wood (communicated by Mr. Becket, and now engraved in Vertical Section sheet No. 26, section No. 38), and follow that with abstracts of some other sections from the neighbourhood of Wyrley.

*Section of Mr. Mills's Engine pit at Essington Wood.*
					FT.	IN.		FT.	IN
1.	Red clay and sand	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Drift	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	12	3	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	18	3
2.	Yellow clay				6	0
3.	Blue clay				2	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	69	11
4.	Fire-clay				2	0
5.	Rock				11	6
6.	Blue clunch				3	6
7.	Batt and Coal				2	0
8.	Dark ground				1	0
9.	Fire-clay				12	0
10.	Parting				0	2
11.	Fire-clay with stone (ironstone)				5	7
12.	Black parting				1	0
13.	Fire-clay				6	0
14.	Parting				0	8
15.	Fire-clay				3	7
16.	Dark ground				3	0
17.	Fire-clay				3	0
18.	Black parting				0	9
19.	Coal				1	9
20.	Dark ground with ironstone				9	11
21.	Coal				1	9	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	12	5
22.	Parting				0	9
23.	Coal				3	0
24.	Parting				1	0
25.	Coal				0	9
26.	Parting				1	3
27.	Coal				0	9
28.	Parting				1	6
29.	Coal				0	9
30.	Dark ground				3	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	70	5
31.	Coal				1	2
32.	Fire-clay				21	0
33.	Strong clunch, intermixed with peldon				18	9
34.	Strong clunch				7	0
35.	Dark ground				2	0
36.	Fire-clay				17	6
37.	Coal and batt							2	1
38.	Fire-clay and batt				6	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	32	6
39.	Clunch				11	0
40.	Dark binds				6	0
41.	Clunch				5	6
42.	Dark clod				4	0
43.	Coal				3	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	7	6
44.	Parting				0	2
45.	Coal				4	4
46.	Strong fire-clay				5	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	7	6
47.	Strong light rock				8	8
48.	Dark binds with rock				13	5
49.	Peldon				2	6
50.	Light binds with rock				9	0
51.	Strong dark ground				4	0
52.	Coal				0	10
53.	Strong dark clod				6	3
54.	Strong dark clod, intermixed with ironstone				7	1
55.	Old Robins Coal (of Wyrley)		$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Coal	1	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	5	8
				Parting	0	2
				Coal	4	6
56.	Strong batt				1	8	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	34	7
57.	Dark clunch				4	0
58.	Little Coal				0	7
59.	Fire-clay				0	6
60.	Strong dark ground, with ironstone				2	11
61.	Strong mixed ground				3	0
62.	Grey binds				10	6
63.	Strong dark clod, with ironstone				3	5
64.	Strong dark ground				8	0
65.	Yard Coal (of Wyrley)		$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Coal	3	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	5	0
				Parting	0	6
				Coal	1	6
66.	Fire-clay				1	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	49	10
67.	Light binds				12	6
68.	Parting				0	4
69.	Fire-clay				1	8
70.	Little Coal				1	3
71.	Fire-clay				7	0
72.	Grey binds				6	10
73.	Light rock, with black partings				6	9
74.	Little Coal				1	3
75.	Strong fire-clay				6	0
76.	Light rock				1	3
77.	Grey binds				3	2
78.	Dark clod				0	10
79.	Charles Coal (of Wyrley)							2	3
80.	Fire-clay				5	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	29	8
81.	Grey binds				5	0
82.	Light rock				0	10
83.	Grey binds				18	10
84.	Cannel Coal (of Wyrley)							3	9
85.	Strong dark ground				6	0	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	57	3
86.	Peldon				1	0
87.	Parting				0	8
88.	Strong dark batt				4	0
89.	Parting				0	6
90.	Strong dark batt				6	4
91.	Light binds				31	9
92.	Rock				7	0
93.	Brooch Coal (of Wyrley)				2	2	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	6	3
94.	Dark ground				3	6
95.	Coal ( ? Benches of "Wyrley)				0	7
96.	Light binds				20	5	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	73	10
97.	Strong rock				7	0
98.	Coal (not known at Wyrley)				2	0
99.	Parting				1	3
100.	Strong light binds				19	2
101.	Ditto with ironstone				20	3
102.	Light binds				3	9
103	Bottom Coal of Wyrley		$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Coal	5	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	8	7
				Parting	0	7
				Coal	2	6
104.	Various measures							38	0
105.	Four Foot Coal							4	0
								589	0

(Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 38).

The following are the abstracts of some other Wyrley sections :—

Section at Longhouse.

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Red sandy rotch, perhaps part of New Red sandstone	35	6	–
2.	Alternations of clunch, grey rock, and black batt	101	0	–
3.	Coal and batt			1	9
4.	Rock and clunch	10	0	–
5.	Coals and partings, principally batts			5	10
6.	Dark clunch	1	11	–
7.	Coal			2	0
8.	Fire-clay, clunch, and rock	74	0	–
9.	Coal (Old Robins coal)			6	6
10.	Various measures	84	0	–
11.	Coal (probably the Charles coal)			3	0
12.	Various measures	54	0	–
13.	Coal (Cannel coal)			3	6
14.	Various measures	81	0	–
15.	Coal (Brooch and Benches)			7
16.	Various measures	48	0	–
17.	Coal (called Bottom coal) ^[90]			7	0
		489	5	36	7
		36	7
		526	0

*Section of Mr. Gilpin's new pits between Church Bridge and Wyrley Bank.*^[91]
						FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Clay, shale, &c.					30	0	–
2.	Robins coal							8	0
3.	Black batts, with ironstone balls					22	0
4.	Yard coal							3	0
5.	Fire-clay, batt, and binds					69	0
6.	Charles coal							3	0
7.	Binds and rock					64	0
8.	Cannel coal							4	0
9.	Binds. &c.					84	0
10.	Brooch coal	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	7	3	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$			4	0
	Rubbish					1	0	–
11.	Benches coal							2	3
12.	Binds, &c.					40	0	–
13.	Bottom coal							8	0
14.	Binds, &c.					39	0	–
15.	Another coal							3	0
						349	0	35	3
						35	3
						384	3

*Section of Mr. Gilpin's pits near the Cock public-house.*
					FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Soil and clay				13	6	–
2.	Chinch and batt, with ironstone				6	7	–
3.	Old man's coal=Yard coal						3	9
4.	Fire-clay, batt, and clunch, with grubb ironstone	19	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	35	6	–
5.	Flying coal	1	0
6.	Fire-clay, binds, &c.	15	0
7.	Charles coal						2	4
8.	Fire-clay and clunch	15	6	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	54	0
9.	Flying coal	3	0
10.	Fire-clay, binds, and clunch	35	6
11.	Cannel coal						3	11
					109	7	10	0
					10	0
					119	7

<div class="wst-center tiInherit " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.> Section at Mr. Yates' colliery at Wyrley.^[92]

					FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Soil and gravel				12	0
2.	Clunch and binds	12	0	Failed to parse (unknown function "\begin{matrix}"): {\displaystyle \scriptstyle{ \left. \begin{matrix} \ <strong class="error"><span class="scribunto-error" id="mw-scribunto-error-3d8151e8">The time allocated for running scripts has expired.</span></strong> \end{matrix} \right\}\, } }	35	6
3.	Flying coal	1	0
4.	Fire-clay and rock	22	6
5.	Charles coal						3	0
6.	Fire-clay and clunch	12	0	Failed to parse (unknown function "\begin{matrix}"): {\displaystyle \scriptstyle{ \left. \begin{matrix} \ <strong class="error"><span class="scribunto-error" id="mw-scribunto-error-3d8151e8">The time allocated for running scripts has expired.</span></strong> \end{matrix} \right\}\, } }	40	9
7.	Flying coal	1	6
8.	Fire-clay, binds, and rock	27	3
	Cannel coal						3	8
					88	3	6	8
					6	8
					94	11

We have, therefore, here no means of determining exactly the height above the Old Robins or other of the Wyrlcy and Essington coals at which the Red coal-measure beds ought to make their appearance in the section. But as the beds in the Essington colliery dip at a gentle angle in the direction of the south-west extension of the Red clays in the Essington Wood brick pits, it is probable that the uppermost beds of Essington colliery would be covered by the Red clays about half way between the two places, and without any very large increase of thickness, not more, perhaps, than 100 feet or thereabouts.

If this be true, the Essington and Wyrley coals may be expected to lie at no very unreasonable depth beneath the Red clays of the Essington Wood brick pits, and over all the space up to the boundary fault as drawn in the latest edition of our maps (that of 1859).

The Red coal-measure clays, however, are worked on the eastern side of the district about Walsall Wood as well as on the west side near Essington, and have beneath them coals which are now being worked. Let us therefore examine,

The relations between the Red coal-measure clays of Walsall Wood and the Coal-measures of Coppy Hall Colliery and the Aldridge Trial Pit—The Red clays about Walsall Wood and the neighbourhood have long been extensively opened by brick pits. Their general dip is northerly at very slight angles, not more than 3°. A shaft has now been lately sunk through a considerable thickness of these clays south of all the brick pits, and where, therefore, they are probably thinner than at any locality further north. It was undertaken by the Rev. Baily Williams, whose enterprise has been deservedly rewarded by the discovery of several good coals and some ironstone below them. This pit is called No. 1. of the Coppy Hall colliery, and is situated just over the "o" of " Stubbock's Green," as engraved on the Ordnance map. The following is an abstract of the measures passed through, communicated by Mr. Roberts, the mine agent, of Walsall:—

*Section of Coppy Hall Colliery*
		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Red clay and marl, &c.	218	0	–
2.	Green and red shales interstratified with dark grey and black measures	37	0	–
3.	Coal			1	0
4.	Fire-clay, binds, &c, with one or two small coals	140	6	–
5.	Coal, four small coals with partings			12	8
6.	Fire-clay, binds, &c. with ironstone balls	92	8	–
7.	Coal, with batt			2	3
8.	Binds, with ironstone, rock, &c.	33	7	–
9.	Coal			7	6
10.	Binds, with ironstone	11	0	–
11.	Coal			1	0
12.	Binds, with ironstone, &c.	12	10	–
13.	Coal			4	0
14.	Shales and binds, with ironstone	18	0	–
		562	7	28	5
		28	5
		591	0

<div class="wst-center tiInherit " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.> (See Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 44.)

There was a trial pit sunk about ten years ago, a little more than a mile to the southward of the Coppy Hall colliery, a little north of the Red House near Aldridge. As the measures hereabouts all dip to the north, or a little cast of north, at an angle of 30°, the beds, which lie deep at Coppy Hall colliery ought, if there be no fault between the two places and the increase of dip take place gradually, to crop out at or about the Aldridge trial pit.

The following is an abstract of the section of that pit, which was published by Mr. Roberts in the year 1849:—

*Abstract of the Measures passed through in the Aldridge Trial Pit.*
		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Upper measures	55	0	–
2.	Coal and batt			2	9
3.	Fire-clay and clod	18	3	–
4.	Coal and batt			1	9
5.	Fire-clay, clod, and binds	10	9	–
6.	Coal and batt			4	6
7.	Fire-clay, binds, &c.	86	6	–
8.	Coal and batt			3	6
9.	Fire clay, &c, with small ironstone	31	7	–
10.	Coal with parting			7
11.	Fire-clay, binds, with good ironstone,&c.	18	6	–
12.	Coal			1	0
13.	Iornstone measures, fire-clay, &c.	17	4	–
14.	Coal			5	10
15.	Fire-clay, rock, and binds, with ironstone, &c.	64	4	–
16.	Coal			6	6
17.	Fire-clay	2	9	–
18.	Coal			1	0
19.	Fire-clay, clod, etc.	16	8	–
20.	Coal			3	4
21.	Various measures	77	9	–
		399	5	37	10
		37	10
	Total	437	3

<div class="wst-center tiInherit " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.> (See Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 4.)

It would be very unsafe to draw conclusions from a mere resemblance in the thicknesses and grouping of beds in two sections more than a mile apart, but looking both to the fact of the occurrence of ironstone, and the near agreement in thickness, it seems very probable that the bed numbered 13 in the Copy Hall section, is the same as that numbered 14 in the Aldridge trial pits. The resemblance is very striking, if we place side by side the following parts of the two sections: —

The time allocated for running scripts has expired.	Coppy Hall.			Aldridge.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.	No.	Thickness.		No.	Thickness.
		FT.	IN.		FT.	IN.
Fireclay, Einds, &c.	6	92	8	7	86	6
Coal with batt	7	2	3	8	3	6
Binds and fire-clay with ironstone	8	33	7	9	31	7
Coal	9	7	6	10	7	8
Binds and fire-clay with ironstone	10	11	0	11	18	6
Coal	11	1	0	12	1	0
Binds, &c and ironstone measures	12	12	10	13	17	4
Coal	13	4	0	14	5	10

Over No. 6 in the Coppy Hall shaft there are several coals and batts with partings, while over No. 7 of Aldridge there are likewise some small conls and bats, separated, however, not by mere partings, but by groups of beds, though not of large thickness, these being surmounted by 55 feet of various measures, which may very well be the lower part of the 140 feet of measures grouped as No. 4 in the Coppy Hall colliery. In this case the beds which reached the surface at the Aldridge shaft would be about 340 feet deep at the Coppy Hall colliery. If we might be permitted to extend our comparison from the eastern to the western side of the coal-field, and to suppose that the small coals and batts which are numbered 2 to 6 inclusive in the Aldridge section, and those, marked No. 5 in the Coppy Hall section were the same group, there or thereabouts, as the group of small coals and partings numbered as No. 20 to 29 in the Essington section, given at page 94, we should find a very great resemblance in the thicknesses of the beds immediately

below them, as follows:—

		Aldridge.		Coppy Hall.		Essington.
1.	Small coals and partings	38	6	12	8	12	0
	Intermediate	86	6	92	8	70	5
2.	Coal and batt	3	6	2	3	2	1
	Intermediate	33	7	31	7	32	6
3.	Coal and partings	7	8	7	6	7	6
	Intermediate	36	10	24	0	57	3
4.	Coal and partings	5	10	4	0	5	8

If the above be anything more than an accidental coincidence, and we may really believe that the measures are the same beds in the three places, it would then follow that, as the fourth or lowest coal just mentioned at Essington is the Old Robins coal, the coal No. 13 of Coppy Hall, and that No. 14 of Aldridge is also the same as the Old Robins coal of Wyrley. Mr. Gilpin, of Wyrley, on the other hand, is of opinion that the ironstones over coal No. 16 of Aldridge and below coal No. 13 of the Coppy Hall section are the same ironstones as those just above the Bottom coal of Wyrley. If that be so, then coal No. 16 of the Aldridge section, p. 100, is the Bottom coal of Wyrley. No. 20 probably the Bentley Hey coal. No. 14 probably the Wyrley Brooch and Benches. No. 10 the Cannel. No. 8 the Charles, and No. 6 the Yard coal. In the Coppy Hall pit then. No. 13 must be the Brooch and Benches. No. 11 the Cannel. No. 9 the Charles. No. 7 the Yard, and No. 5 the Old Robins. If this be so, there is a very wide discrepancy in the thickness of the measures in the two sides of the coal-field, and a still greater one in the thickness between the base of the red clays and the Old Robins coal. If No. 5 of the Coppy Hall pit represent the Old Robins of Essington, we have only about 180 feet between it and the red clays there, while at Essington there is 252 feet without the appearance of any red clays, and they are probably at least 30 or 40 feet higher, perhaps 100 feet. Whatever may be the value of these identifications of particular beds, we may feel pretty sure that the beds at Coppy Hall and the Aldridge trial pits are on about the same geological horizon as the upper coals of Essington and Wyrley, and that all the other Wyrley coals will probably be found eventually below them, as well as the Brown Hills and Pelsall beds at a still lower depth.

If this comparison of the measures on the two sides of the coal-field be right, it follows that as the coal No. 13 of the Coppy Hall colliery lies at a depth of about 280 feet below the base of the red clays there, that is the probable position at which the Old Robins coal may lie below them at Essington Wood, and that as in the pits, of which the section is given at p. 94, "it is 252 feet deep, if that pit had been sunk a little farther on the dip of the beds, the Red coal-measure clays would have appeared in the top of it.

A further consequence of this hypothesis would be that as the place of the Deep coal of Pelsall and the Brown Hills is about 650 feet below the Old Robins coal of Wyrley, it is also about that much under the coal No. 13 of Coppy Hall and No. 14 of Aldridge, and must, therefore, be about 1,200 feet below the surface at Coppy Hall; we should hence get a rough measure for the amount of the fault, which brings in the upper red coal-measure clays of Walsall Wood to the eastward of the outcrop of the Deep coal on Pelsall Heath, for it is obvious that it must have a downthrow to the eastward of consider ably more than 1,000 feet.

It is by no means wished to put forward these statements of figures as absolutely trustworthy or exact, still a fault which brings in those Upper Red clays that lie above all the workable coal-seams of the field and are apparently the same as those which are known to lie 100 yards above the Thick coal, and places these Upper clays on a level and in close juxtaposition with the very base of the coal-field must have a throw of something about that amount. That these Upper Red beds are in reality upper Coal-measures is confirmed by all the beds being apparently quite conformable to each other, and the black and red measures graduating into each other at the Coppy Hall colliery.

It would follow from this that workable beds of coal lie at no inaccessible depth over all the corner of ground about Walsall Wood and Clay hanger, and may be reached after passing through from 300 to 600 feet of the red clays.

The same will be true also for the red brick clays of Essington Wood and the strip of country north and south of it, where these clays prevail; as also for the red clays of Rumour Hill east of Cannock and those of Littleworth near Hednesford, although near Cannock it is probable, from Mr. Gilpin's account, that the ground is too much cut up by faults to make exploration other than very hazardous.

The Cannock Chase District.—It has been already stated that the dip of the measures all across the part of the coal-field now being treated of is from east to west. In the northern part of the Brown Hills field, however, the beds are beginning slightly to curve round, so as to strike to the north-east and dip to the north-west. It is probable then that the beds all across the field will follow this curve, and that the Wyrley coals will curve round from Church Bridge and strike towards the north-west in the direction of Brereton.

This probability is confirmed by the fact of two outcrops of coal being still traceable in Cannock <span class="wst-tooltip wst-tooltip-dash " title="The time allocated for running scripts has expired.">Chace by means of some old workings having this bearing. The one outcrop runs from about Heathy Hays to near Cooper's Lodge, as was formerly observed by myself. Another was traced by the persons employed by the Commissioners who divided the mines of Norton Manor. Mr. Beckett, of Wolverhampton, who was associated with these persons, has allowed me to examine the plans and reports which were drawn up.^[93] This outcrop runs from a little north of Norton Church on to Norton Common, and it is stated in the report above alluded to that it was the opinion of the reporters that this coal was the same as the Bentley Hey coal, or that four-foot coal which lies next below the Wyrley (so called) Bottom coal.

We may perhaps be justified in looking on this outcrop at Norton as more probably that of the Eight-foot or Wyrley Bottom coal itself, and that the Bentley Hey coal crop will be found still further to the south-east, especially when we remember the existence both of the Bentley Hey coal and the Heathen coal in the pit of the Cathedral colliery, which lies in the trough of the Rising Sun 2 miles to the south-east.

Now, with the lower coals undoubtedly at the Brown Hills, the upper coals a little south of Cannock, and these traces of the middle beds half way between, we may feel pretty sure that we should have the whole workable and valuable part of the coal-field cropping out in regular succession from west to east along the line of Watling Street between the two boundary faults. The distance along the ground is about 4½ miles, say 24,000 feet, and the total thickness of the measures as presumed from the section given at p. 23, will be about 1,000 feet. This will give a mean inclination of about 1 in 24 or not quite 3°, which agrees very closely with the observed inclination in all the workings of the mines.

It is then highly probable that the whole of the Coal-measures will sweep pretty steadily across Cannock Chase up to Brereton.

Old shallow workings have been carried on hero and there about Cannock Chase, of which the following records were formerly gained and published in the first edition of this Memoir.

At Cannock mill, just east of Cannock, there were some coal-pits a few years back worked by Lord Hatherton, and called the Rumour Hill pits, of which I got the following section from the recollection of Abraham Ward, well-sinker, at Cannock:—

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Red marl	6	0	–
2.	White binds	12	0	–
3.	Cannel coal			3 6
4.	Bind measures	24	0	–
5.	Rock	3	0	–
6.	Two-foot coal			2	0
7.	Binds, rock binds, clunch, &c.	72	0	–
8.	Coal			4	6
9.	Measures	90	0	–
10.	Stinking coal			5	0
		207	0	15	0
		15	0
		222	0

We cannot with any degree of certainty identify any of these beds with any of those at Wyrley, but Mr. Gilpin believes them to belong to the upper Coal-measures of Wyrley.

Just south of the hamlet of Hednesford there are some old coal workings, of which I got the following section from W. Haycock, an old collier at Brereton:—

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	Gravel	20	0	–
2.	Clod	12	0	–
3.	Yellow rock	42	0	–
4.	Clod	10	0	–
5.	Coal			7	0
6.	Clod containing good ironstone	90	0	–
7.	Coal			4	0
		185	0	11	0
		11	0
		185	0

Some new shafts were being sunk by Mr. Piggott just to the eastward of Hednesford, in the year 1858, in which they had found what they believed to be the Wyrley Bottom or Eight-foot coal at a depth of 300 feet. It was there only 6 foot thick, and 60 feet below it there was a Four-foot coal, which might possibly be the Bentley Hey coal, while 90 feet over it, or at a depth of 210 feet from the surface, there was another coal of 4½ feet thick, believed to be the Wyrley Cannel coal. They had also got the black nodular ironstone full of tubular cavities, from which at Wyrley it is called the Grub ironstone.

On the authority of W. Haycock, the measures at the old Botany Bay colliery, just north-west of Hednesford Pool, were,—

		FT.	FT.
1.	Running sand	51	–
2.	Clod	29	–
3.	Coal	–	5
4.	Clod	20	–
5.	Coal	–	3
		180	8
		8
		188

The same person also gave me the following scraps of information:—

*Section between Heathy Heys, Wimblebury, and Cooper's Lodge*
	FT.	IN.
1.	Gravel	12	0
2.	Clod	90	0
3.	Cannel coal	1	4
4.	Clod	6	0
5.	Coal	4	0
		113	4

*Section between Sugars Lodge and Lodge Barn in Beaudesert Old Park.*
		FT.	IN.
1.	Waterclay	6	0
2.	Clod	60	0
3.	Coal	5	0
	Under which they bored down through many measures containing 9 coals	360	0
		431	0

He also told me that, at Noddyficld, near Mr. Cocking's house, there was the same section as at Hednesford, the seven- foot coal being 51 feet deep at Noddyfield, instead of 84, as at Hednesford. As Noddyfield is much higher ground than Hednesford, there must, if this information be correct, probably be a gentle westerly or north-westerly dip over all the intervening space.

I procured an old section from the late Mr. Figgins, of Brereton Heys, mine agent to the Marquis of Anglcsea, which was taken either at Noddyfield, or in the Old Park of Beaudesert, most probably the former. In either case it does not go greatly against W. Haycock's evidence, and in the latter tends to confirm it.

The following is an abstract of this section:—

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN.
1.	From surface to the bottom of a coal of which the thickness is not stated	90	0	–
2.	Clunch, binds, fire-clay, rocks, &c, with three little nine-inch or foot coals intervening	70	6	–
3.	Coal			4	0
4.	Rock, binds, &c.	25	6	–
5.	Coal			2	0
6.	Fire-clay, binds, rock, clunch, &c.	39	0	–
7.	Coal			4	0
8.	Fire-clay	0	0	–
		225	0	10	0
		10	0
		235	0

This section evidently passes through the same measures as those which are now being worked near Brereton, about three miles to the northward.

The Brereton Collieries.—Of the pits in the Brereton colliery district I have had sections supplied to me by Mr. George, of Bentley; Mr. Vernon Poole, of Brereton, Lord Talbot's agent; and by the late Mr. Figgins. These sections are so nearly identical that they seem all to have come from the same source, and to apply equally to all the Brereton district. The section now engraved in Vertical Sections, Sheet 16, No. 1, will give the details, but I add here an abstract:—

<div class="wst-center tiInherit " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.> Brereton Section.

		FT.	IN.	FT.	IN
1.	Red and white gravel (part of the New red sandstone conglomerate)	80	0	–
2.	Red and yellow marl, rock, clod, and batt	16	6	–
3.	First coal			4	6
4.	Clod with ironstone	19	10	–
5.	Second coal			2	6
6.	Clod and rock	51	3	–
7.	Third coal			2	0
8.	Fire-clay and clod	13	0	–
9.	Fourth coal			4	0
10.	Rock clod and ironstone	30	1	–
11.	Fifth coal			4	0
12.	Fire-clay	3	0	–
13.	Sixth coa			0	4
14.	Rock with ironstone	14	8	–
15.	Seventh Coal			2	3
16.	Rock with ironstone, and clod and batt	36	0	–
17.	Eighth coal			4	0
18.	Batt, clod, and light rock and clod.	50	0	–
19.	Ninth coal			0	6
20.	Clod,&c.	6	0	–
21.	Tenth coal			3	3
22.	Rock	13	4	–
23.	Eleventh coal			1	0
24.	Clod, rock, and ironstone, &c.	22	10	–
25.	Twelfth coal			9	0
26.	Rock, binds, and ironstone	48	7	–
27.	Coal, not enumerated			2	0
28.	Binds with ironstone	21	7	–
29.	Thirteenth coal			5	0
30.	Fire clay and clod	24	0	–
31.	Fourteenth coal			1	0
32.	Rock, clod, and ironstone	105	8	–
33.	Fifteenth coal			4	3
		556	4	49	7
		49	7
		605	11

<div class="wst-center tiInherit " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.> (See Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 1.)

Below the fifteenth coal they sank some distance in red measures.

It will be at once seen from the inspection of this section that it is not possible, from the mere thickness and relative position of its beds, to discover any relation between it and any of those we have examined in the southern part of the field. Everything, however, seems to confirm the conclusion formerly arrived at, that, speaking generally, the Brereton coals are the same as the Wyrley coals, a little more split up and separated from each other. It is remarkable, too, that the total amount of the Brereton coals, when added together, namely, 49 feet, is nearly the same with their total amount at Wyrley, namely, 46 feet.^[94]

The Lickey Coal-measures.—Before closing the account of the Coal-measures it is necessary just to mention two little outlying districts of that formation on the south of the field,—one is near the Lickey Hill, where sinall patches of Coal-measures with one or two little bands of coal were found on each side of the quartz ridge, near the New Rose and Crown.

The Stonehouse Coal-measures.—Another is near the Stone House, south-west of Harborne. At this latter locality Mr. Flavell sank 240 feet through true Coal-measures, grey shales, with nodules of ironstone, but without traversing any bed of coal. It is obviously impossible to say what part of the general series of Coal-measures those found at these two localities belong to.

varies in thickness in different pits from 18 to 21 inches, undulating considerably in short distances. In one pit this batt is represented by a very hard rock four inches in thickness, very fine in the grain, and of a greyish white colour.—Note by Mr.Gilpin.

↑ To the original 765 feet we must add 112 for the fall of the beds, 100 for the rise of the ground=977 feet: deducting 30 feet for the thickness of the coal, we get in round numbers 950 feet for the thickness above the coal.
↑ The Hawn pits are 370 feet above the sea. Captain Ibbetson made the spot at "H" of "High fields" in the Ordnance map 540 feet above the sea; difference = 170 feet.
↑ Professor Ramsay and Mr. Hull have lately (February 1859) gone over this ground again for the express purpose of comparing these several localities with each other, and with the red beds in the southern part of the coal-field, and have satisfied themselves that they all belong properly to an upper part of the Coal-measure series.
↑ Sir R. I. Murchison, in his account of this district in the "Silurian System," derives this word from the measures having been first "broached" or entered on by this coal. Historically. I believe this was not the fact, as the first working seems to have been along the crop of the Thick coal. I venture to conjecture that the name is derived from the old-used word "broche," a spit, as this coal makes an excellent fire for roasting at.
↑ Still exclusive of those mines in which the Flying reed occurs, when the thickness sometimes diminishes to 29 feet.
↑ Pronounced to rhyme with "cow."
↑ This coal is but rarely noted; there is in many sections a coal called "fine floors," between the "white coal" and the "tow or heath."
↑ "Brassil" is a term generally used to denote a rough impure coal; sometimes it seems as if used to denote the presence of much iron pyrites, and to mean therefore "brassy"; it is not, however, always used in that sense.
↑ There is very frequently another coal called "Patchells," especially on the west of Dudley over the Sawyer.
↑ This lowest coal is known by the various terms of Humphreys or Omfray floor, benches, holers, kit, kid, or kick coal, and red coal.
↑ Taken from the "Miner's Guide," published by Mr. T. Smith.
↑ "The Miner’s Guide, being a Description and Illustration of a Chart of Sections of the principal Mines of Coal and Ironstone in the Counties of Stafford, Salop, Warwick, and Durham", Thomas Smith, 1836; or second edition, 1846 (Wikisource contributor note)
↑ From Smith's "Miner's Guide."
↑ See Vertical section, sheet 17, comparative sections of Thick coal at the bottom of the sheet, and sheet 18, No. 32.
↑ Supplied by Mr. W. Matthews.
↑ In other places, however, as at Dudley Woodside, &c., this "white coal parting" does not exist, and No. 1 rests directly on No. 2.
↑ The details of ths Shut End Colliery were supplied to me by Mr. Colly, ground bailiff to Mr. Foster.
↑ From Lord Ward's office.
↑ This Thick coal has many small partings between its beds.
↑ Supplied by Mr. Growcott, ground bailiff.
↑ See Vertical Section, No. 48, sheet 26.
↑ Supplied by Mr. Skidmore, of Amblecote.
↑ Communicated by Mr. T. A. Atrwood.
↑ This information was communicated by Mr. Aaron Peacock.
↑ For whole section, see Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 47.
↑ Communicated by Charles Small, ground bailiff, and given now instead of the Old Baremoor or Congreaves sections, which have been already published in Murchison's Silurian System.
↑ The batt, which generally goes by the name of the Table batt, is above the Heathen coal and underneath the Gubbin ironstone, and would lie between Nos. 15 and 16 of this section.
↑ I begin with the same numbers as the last section, for the sake of easy reference.
↑ See Figure No. 5, a section on a true scale of the bottom part of the Baremore shaft, and the adjacent measures.
↑ I have been since informed (July 1859) that they have now driven beyond all this "troubled ground" into good uninjured Thick coal without either sandstone or "white rock" trap.
↑ The theoretical and practical importance of these "swells" will be further noticed hereafter (see pp. 190 and 191.)
↑ Communicated by Mr. Kenyon Blackwell, to whom I must return thanks for much valuable information.
↑ A "black ring" when mentioned in a pit section means an impure coaly bed, sometimes called "smut," &c.; it forms a black ring round the shaft, whence its name.
↑ "Lambstone," I am inclined to suppose to be a corruption of "loam stone;" or it is perhaps another form of the same word, and ought to be written "lam."
↑ This is now the customary orthography of this word in the district. I have, however, seen it written "eathen." The presence or absence of the aspirate is of no account in the matter, as most of the colliers would speak of "a hegg." I believe, therefore, that this term is a corruption of "earthen" as in the case of the "broad heath," &c., mentioned before. Probably the coal when it was first got had an earthy quality or appearance. Mr. Keir, however, writes it "heathing" coal, and it may very well be derived from some obsolete word with which I am not acquainted.
↑ There is a Cake ironstone worked immediately under the Whitestone at the pits round Cradley Heath, &c., which is probably the same as the Cakes east of Dudley.
↑
My late lamented colleague, Professor Edward Forbes, informed me that these fossils are:— <div class="wst-block-center " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.>
- Producta scabricula.
- Avicula quadrata.
- Pecten (?) unnamed.
- Lingula mytiloidcs (?).
- Orbicula nitida.
- Conularia quadrisulcata.
- Fish teeth and bones undetermined.
- An echinus very much broken up, probably archaocidaris, but in too fragmentary a state to be exactly determined.

↑ Now known as Anthracosia.

↑ Probably the Binds coal of Bentley.

↑ ^40.0 ^40.1 ^40.2 Probably the Little Gubbin coal and ironstone.

↑ ^41.0 ^41.1 Probably the New Mine stone.

↑ Probably the Pennystone

↑ For the whole of this section, see Vertical Sections, sheet 26. No. 41.

↑ I shall hereafter have occasion to remark on the very vague way in which the term "fault" is used in this district, and the patient and skilful cross-examination often necessary to get at its true meaning in the mouth of a collier.

↑ In this colliery and the neighbourhood is so remarkable an instance of the phenomenon well known to all geologists as "false bedding," or "oblique lamination," that it is worth while describing it. Several small quarries had been opened in some light-coloured sandstone just above the New mine coal, the same as that just spoken of as the Twenty-yard or New-mine-coal rock, and over a space of nearly a quarter of a mile square, the apparent dip of that sandstone was seen in each quarry to be about 25° to the south-east. The sandstone was fine-grained, with shaly partings, often splitting into flags, and the whole of the lines representing stratification inclined at the tame amount and in the same direction. As I[ knew the coal was worked at a very slight depth over all that space. I could not understand why it did not crop to the surface, till I came on a larger quarry that explained the pnzzle. In this quarry the coal was seen lying as nearly horizontal as possible, with the shaly and flaggy sandstone dipping regularly down on to it at an angle of 25°.—(See Figure 10.) <div class="wst-center tiInherit " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.> Fig. 10.

<div class="wst-center tiInherit " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.> a Finely-grained flaggy sandstone.b New mine coal.

There was no appearance of any lenticular thickening or thinning of the beds of sandstone, they simply ended against the upper surfaces of the coal, which, when bared, was found to be quite smooth, almost as if polished, but not quite level, forming slight undulations, but with no admixture of any other materials than coal. There were, in some places, about 15 feet of sandstone exposed, and about 8 of coal, the length of the quarry being about 50 yards, throughout which there was no material change in this structure. Like other similar structures in most sandy beds, it shows that the materials must have been brought into their present situation by a pretty rapid current, and that a bank being once produced, the successive accumulations were formed on the slope of it into inclined layers or beds.

↑ The real fact is, that the colliers of each small district neither know anything, nor care to know anything beyond the bounds of their own small locality, and those of Willenhall and the Brown Hills are thus reciprocally ignorant of each other's terms.

↑ Mr. Lionel Brough. Inspector of Collieries, informs me that at Rose Hill colliery there was only 6 inches between the New Mine and Fireclay coals, the space being occupied by the Fireclay Balls ironstone.

↑ See Vertical Sections, sheet 16, No. 12, and sheet 26, No. 51.

↑ "Holers" is a term frequently applied to the lowest of a set of coals which are sufficiently close to be "gotten" together. In getting the coal a low wide hole is excavated by the pick some distance into the bottom bed of coal; the upper beds are then cut on each side of this 44 hole," and, of course, fall into it.

↑ Communicated by Messrs. Bate.

↑ ^51.0 ^51.1 Communicated by Mr. George.

↑ Communicated from Lord Ward's office, by Air. K. Smith.

↑ From Smith's "Miners' Guide."

↑ Lord Word's office.

↑ By the Getting rock is meant a sandstone -which when it contains ironstone is worth getting. I can only refer the origin of the term "Poor robin" to the fantastic imagination of some fanciful collier. The other derives its name from its colour and the locality, the Rough Hills south of Wolverhampton, where it was first worked.

↑ Communicated by Mr. George.

↑ Communicated by Mr. Arthur Sparrow.

↑ Communicated by Mr. W. Ward.

↑ Communicated by Mr. Griffith of the Cock-shutts.

↑ From the "Miners' Guide."

↑ Communicated by Mr. S. H. Blackwell.

↑ ^62.0 ^62.1 Communicated by Mr. S. H. Blackwell.

↑ From the " Miners' Guide."

↑ Communicated by Mr. Grogart.

↑ Communicated from Lord Ward's office.

↑ Communicated by Mr. Johnson.

↑ This name, assigned to it at first in one locality, turns out, as is often the case, to be a misnomer, as in other localities there are other coals below it, one of which at least is sometimes worth getting.

↑ Takes its name, I believe, as the bed by which they first arrive at or gain the coal in sinking a pit.

↑ ^69.0 ^69.1 Communicated by Mr. Griffiths.

↑ Lord Ward's office.

↑ Mr. J. Kenyon Blackwell.

↑ From Messrs. Bate.

↑ Warren earth and some of the other terms used in this section are those common in the Derbyshire, Nottingham, and Yorkshire coal-field.

↑ I believe this term "Gubbin," which is commonly used in all the Midland coal-fields, is derived from an old English word "gub" or "gob," meaning a piece, lump, or fragment. The waste left after extraction of a coal is called "the gob."

↑ This name was described to me as arising from the fact, that as they passed through it in some places, the gas could be distinctly heard issuing from its crevices "like the singing of a tea-kettle."

↑ Where it has this designation, it is said to be of a greyish hue and to be partly friable or "mealy."

↑ Given me by Mr. Johnson of Dudley.

↑ In Samuel Arblaster's pit near the Brown Hills before mentioned, they got some ironstone somewhat resembling the Blue flats at a depth of only 12 feet (white tender rock) below the supposed Gubbin and balls. The identification of the measures, however, is too doubtful for us to found any argument on.

↑ Mr. Griffiths.

↑ Lord Ward's office.

↑ Murchison's Silurian System.

↑ Mr. George.

↑ Mr. Arthur Sparrow.

↑ In geographical order the Graveyards would come between Nos. 2 and 8.

↑ The abnormal position of this section is due to a local thickening of the beds between the Thick and Heathen coals.

↑ Due to a local increase in the thickness of several of the measures, which is compensated for in the beds below the Bottom coal, as in the Blue flats list this section takes its proper geographical position

↑ It will be recollected that some distance south of Bilston, around Dudley for instance, the beds between the Little Gubbin and the Heathen coal thin out to nothing, and the ironstone measures rest directly on the coal.

↑ There are sometimes small beds of ironstone both above and below the Little Gubbin in the southern part of the field, as at Claycroft, near Dudley, see p. 54.

↑ I say finally, because the whole district is broken up by a multitude of faults, so that all the coals crop and are thrown in again several times. The lines, therefore, drawn on the map about Wyrley and Essington must be taken rather as marking the general limits than the actual outcrop of the coals, while it has hitherto been found impracticable to delineate the numerous faults on the small scale of the Ordnance map.

↑ In several parts of the Wyrley field there is in the Bottom (or Deep) coal what is known to the colliers as the Middle batt or parting. This is always found, but

↑ Given me by Mr. Gilpin, and Jesse Potts, his ground bailiff.

↑ The two latter sections were given me by Mr. George, of Bentley.

↑ It was from this detailed survey that the information was gained that enabled Professor Ramsay to introduce into the map the faults in the neighbourhood of Norton reservoir, and correct some of my former work which was based upon imperfect and often erroneous information.

↑ Near Dudley, the total amount of all the coals would be about 57 feet. The richest part of the field in amount of coal-beds, both absolutely and still more in proportion to the whole thickness of the measures in which they lie is between Wolverhampton and Bilston, where the lower coals are becoming rapidly thicker, and the Thick coal is still nearly unbroken and undiminished. The total amount of the coals in a vertical section there would in some places be upwards of 70 feet, all within a depth of about 300 feet from the surface.

[1] To the original 765 feet we must add 112 for the fall of the beds, 100 for the rise of the ground=977 feet: deducting 30 feet for the thickness of the coal, we get in round numbers 950 feet for the thickness above the coal.

[2] The Hawn pits are 370 feet above the sea. Captain Ibbetson made the spot at "H" of "High fields" in the Ordnance map 540 feet above the sea; difference = 170 feet.

[3] Professor Ramsay and Mr. Hull have lately (February 1859) gone over this ground again for the express purpose of comparing these several localities with each other, and with the red beds in the southern part of the coal-field, and have satisfied themselves that they all belong properly to an upper part of the Coal-measure series.

[4] Sir R. I. Murchison, in his account of this district in the "Silurian System," derives this word from the measures having been first "broached" or entered on by this coal. Historically. I believe this was not the fact, as the first working seems to have been along the crop of the Thick coal. I venture to conjecture that the name is derived from the old-used word "broche," a spit, as this coal makes an excellent fire for roasting at.

[5] Still exclusive of those mines in which the Flying reed occurs, when the thickness sometimes diminishes to 29 feet.

[6] Pronounced to rhyme with "cow."

[7] This coal is but rarely noted; there is in many sections a coal called "fine floors," between the "white coal" and the "tow or heath."

[8] "Brassil" is a term generally used to denote a rough impure coal; sometimes it seems as if used to denote the presence of much iron pyrites, and to mean therefore "brassy"; it is not, however, always used in that sense.

[9] There is very frequently another coal called "Patchells," especially on the west of Dudley over the Sawyer.

[10] This lowest coal is known by the various terms of Humphreys or Omfray floor, benches, holers, kit, kid, or kick coal, and red coal.

[11] Taken from the "Miner's Guide," published by Mr. T. Smith.

[12] "The Miner’s Guide, being a Description and Illustration of a Chart of Sections of the principal Mines of Coal and Ironstone in the Counties of Stafford, Salop, Warwick, and Durham", Thomas Smith, 1836; or second edition, 1846 (Wikisource contributor note)

[13] From Smith's "Miner's Guide."

[14] See Vertical section, sheet 17, comparative sections of Thick coal at the bottom of the sheet, and sheet 18, No. 32.

[15] Supplied by Mr. W. Matthews.

[16] In other places, however, as at Dudley Woodside, &c., this "white coal parting" does not exist, and No. 1 rests directly on No. 2.

[17] The details of ths Shut End Colliery were supplied to me by Mr. Colly, ground bailiff to Mr. Foster.

[18] From Lord Ward's office.

[19] This Thick coal has many small partings between its beds.

[20] Supplied by Mr. Growcott, ground bailiff.

[21] See Vertical Section, No. 48, sheet 26.

[22] Supplied by Mr. Skidmore, of Amblecote.

[23] Communicated by Mr. T. A. Atrwood.

[24] This information was communicated by Mr. Aaron Peacock.

[25] For whole section, see Vertical Sections, sheet 26, No. 47.

[26] Communicated by Charles Small, ground bailiff, and given now instead of the Old Baremoor or Congreaves sections, which have been already published in Murchison's Silurian System.

[27] The batt, which generally goes by the name of the Table batt, is above the Heathen coal and underneath the Gubbin ironstone, and would lie between Nos. 15 and 16 of this section.

[28] I begin with the same numbers as the last section, for the sake of easy reference.

[29] See Figure No. 5, a section on a true scale of the bottom part of the Baremore shaft, and the adjacent measures.

[30] I have been since informed (July 1859) that they have now driven beyond all this "troubled ground" into good uninjured Thick coal without either sandstone or "white rock" trap.

[31] The theoretical and practical importance of these "swells" will be further noticed hereafter (see pp. 190 and 191.)

[32] Communicated by Mr. Kenyon Blackwell, to whom I must return thanks for much valuable information.

[33] A "black ring" when mentioned in a pit section means an impure coaly bed, sometimes called "smut," &c.; it forms a black ring round the shaft, whence its name.

[34] "Lambstone," I am inclined to suppose to be a corruption of "loam stone;" or it is perhaps another form of the same word, and ought to be written "lam."

[35] This is now the customary orthography of this word in the district. I have, however, seen it written "eathen." The presence or absence of the aspirate is of no account in the matter, as most of the colliers would speak of "a hegg." I believe, therefore, that this term is a corruption of "earthen" as in the case of the "broad heath," &c., mentioned before. Probably the coal when it was first got had an earthy quality or appearance. Mr. Keir, however, writes it "heathing" coal, and it may very well be derived from some obsolete word with which I am not acquainted.

[36] There is a Cake ironstone worked immediately under the Whitestone at the pits round Cradley Heath, &c., which is probably the same as the Cakes east of Dudley.

[37] My late lamented colleague, Professor Edward Forbes, informed me that these fossils are:— <div class="wst-block-center " The time allocated for running scripts has expired.>

Producta scabricula.

Avicula quadrata.

Pecten (?) unnamed.

Lingula mytiloidcs (?).

Orbicula nitida.

Conularia quadrisulcata.

Fish teeth and bones undetermined.

An echinus very much broken up, probably archaocidaris, but in too fragmentary a state to be exactly determined.

[38] Producta scabricula.

[39] Avicula quadrata.

[40] Pecten (?) unnamed.

[41] Lingula mytiloidcs (?).

[42] Orbicula nitida.

[43] Conularia quadrisulcata.

[44] Fish teeth and bones undetermined.

[45] An echinus very much broken up, probably archaocidaris, but in too fragmentary a state to be exactly determined.

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