Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/64

46 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 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.)