[104]

Fig. l. Section of the strata composing the Silurian System, and the lower part of the Carboniferous System, on the frontiers of England and Wales. (Murchison.)

Fig. 2. Appearance of Faults intersecting the Coal formation near Newcastle-on-Tyne, copied from a portion of one of Mr. Buddle's important sections of the Newcastle Coal field, in the Transactions of the Nat. Hist. Society of Northumberland, V. I. Pt. 3, Pl. XXI. XXII. XXIII.  The advantages [105] resulting from these Interruptions of the continuity of the strata are pointed out in pp. 543, 544.

A large portion of the surface of these strata near Newcastle is covered with a thick bed of diluvial Clay interspersed with Pebbles, in the manner represented at the top of this Section. The effect of this Clay must be to exclude much rain-water that would have percolated downwards into the Coal mines, had strata of porous Sandstone formed the actual surface.

* The lower and richest beds of this Coal district are not only raised to the surface, and rendered easily accessible around the external margin of the basin, but are also brought within reach in consequence of another important elevation, along an anticlinal line, running nearly E. and W. through a considerable portion of the interior of the basin, in the direction of its longer diameter.

I feel it a public duty to make known an act of Mr. Buddle, which will entitle him to the gratitude of posterity, and has set an example, which, if generally followed in all extensive collieries, will save the lives of thousands of unfortunate miners, that must otherwise perish for want of information which can, at this time, be easily recorded for their preservation. This eminent Engineer and Coal Viewer has presented to the Natural History Society of Newcastle, [105] copies of his most important plans and sections, accompanied by written documents, of the under ground workings in the Collieries near that town, in which all those spaces are carefully noted, from whence the Coal has been extracted. Every practical Miner is too well acquainted with the danger of approaching ancient workings in consequence of the accumulation of water in those parts from which Coal has been removed. The sudden irruption of this water into a mine adjacent to such reservoirs is occasionally attended with most calamitous and fatal results. See History of Fossil Fuel, the Collieries and Coal Trade, 1835. P. 249 et seq.

The dictates of humanity which prompt us to aid in the preservation of human life, no less than the economical view of rendering available at a future time the residuary portions of our beds of Coal, which will not now repay the cost of extracting them, should induce all proprietors and other persons connected with Coal Mines, and especially Engineers and Coal Viewers, to leave to their successors a legacy, which will to them be precious, by preserving minute and exact records of the state of the coal in their respective districts. It can, however, scarcely be expected, that such measures will be generally and systematically adopted throughout the many Coal fields of this country, unless the subject be legislatively taken up by those official persons, whom it behoves, as guardians of the future welfare of the nation, to institute due measures, whilst the opportunities exist, for preventing that loss of life and property, which a little attention bestowed in season, will preserve to posterity.