"COAL-ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL OF ALL THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE
EARTH WHICH IT HAS PLEASED THE ALMIGHTY TO PROVIDE FOR THE USE
OF MAN."-Petition to Parliament from Staffordshire Collieries.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE MARIA LANE;

AND G. RIDGE, KING-STREET, SHEFFIELD

Holland

PREFACE.

IN presenting this Work to the public, the Author has to bespeak the indulgence of certain classes of individuals, whose anticipated gratification he can only hope to have partially succeeded in realizing : he alludes to those who may happen to be professionally engaged in any of the branches of science or business touched upon in the following pages. Should it, therefore, be discovered that the writer of this treatise is neither a Geologist, a Collier, nor a Coal Merchant, the harshness of criticism may surely be deprecated, until some one avowedly possessing such threefold qualification shall compile a volume better adapted than the present for popular instruction, and more accurately conformable to the present state of knowledge in reference to the various matters discussed.

That the subject is an interesting one, few persons, it may be presumed, will deny indeed, this fact is abundantly illustrated by the importance attached to disquisitions on one branch of it, by