Wellwood coal, under the lands of Colton and Hawkies-Fauld; all north of the "dyke " or dislocation of the strata before mentioned. This dislocation, which is forty fathoms at Venturefair Bridge, gradually becomes smaller to the north-west, until near Leadside, where it branches or forks off into innumerable smaller dislocations or "hitches," which disappear in the centre of the burnt or anthracite coal before described.

The five-feet seam is now working to a considerable extent in this pit, and it is not likely that this coal will be so much, if at all, affected in the manner of the splint seam.

2. The Waterloo Pit.-This pit has been in operation since about 1837, and the splint and five-feet seams have been almost entirely excavated, where workable, westward to Lord Elgin's coal-field, and north-west to the boundary of the lands of Lochhead, west from the burnt coal under Leadside. The shaft has produced more coal than any other pit in the Wellwood Colliery, and there will be still two years' working of splint coal. The splint seam is not so strong and powerful in its nature as in the Leadside pit, and the five-feet is of an unusually rich quality, though rather soft and friable.

3. The Tom Pit.-The splint in this pit was completely exhausted fourteen years ago, but the five-feet seam is now working, having been opened up in the year 1843. The latter seam is much thinner in this pit than in the other parts of the field, being in some places under three feet instead of four and a-half feet, as in the Leadside pit. The quality is harder, however, and more like splint, but the coals do not work so large. They are remarkably well adapted for making pig and malleable iron. The Forth Iron Company used them at Oakley for about five years to the extent of 20,000 to 25,000 tons a-year, but are not using them at present. The Weardale Iron Company used them constantly at the Transy Ironworks in the puddling furnaces, for the last process before the hammering of the iron and rolling into bars. They preferred this five-feet to the fine splint, and so did the Forth Iron Company.

The workings have now in some places reached the old waste, which was wrought many years ago by pits north from Baldridge Burn and Beveridge Well, to the rise of the present workings, and near the outcrop. The coal is met with, how

éver, entire, at least to the "Bank Pit" on Mr Hunt's lands of Colton, as lately it was found necessary to drive an air-mine in the solid coal from the bottom of this Bank Pit to ventilate the Tom Pit workings. The Bank Pit is now the "up-cast" air

shaft.

4. The Albert Pit.-This pit is situated on the front of the bank, on the east side of the turnpike road immediately to the north of Hawkies-Fauld village, and is about forty-two fathoms deep to the splint seam. It has been working in both seams for nearly two years, and will shortly be the principal pit of the colliery. It is expected to work out the whole of Mr Wellwood's splint coal to the north and also to the east, where it adjoins the Venturefair coal-field yet to work. It passes through the five-feet seam at the usual depth.

The pits which have been abandoned of late years are—

1. The Victoria Pit.-The splint and five-feet seams were entirely excavated here about six years ago, and since the Elgin Wallsend Pit was discontinued, and the Elgin waste allowed to be inundated, the water has filled the Victoria and part of the Tom Pit wastes also, and stands permanently in the shaft at a point fifty-one fathoms from the surface, than which point it can rise no higher, that being the depth at which there is a fortuitous drainage of the general coal-field, through the large fissures in the rock strata, by the Pitferrane day-level.

In an exploring mine near the Todfir Dyke, to the north of this pit, shortly before it was stopped, limestone was perforated for a considerable distance, having been thrown upwards here to nearly opposite the splint coal; and in the shales and thin beds of inferior limestone many fossil shells were found, but unfortunately not preserved. They were chiefly univalve and of a species not common in the mountain limestone. The beds of limestone seemed to be rather fresh water than marine, and occupied the same position in the strata as the limestone of Burdiehouse, near Edinburgh, namely, immediately under the coal-measures.

The Victoria shaft passed through many seams of coal which will in future be valuable, when the lower and better seams are exhausted.

2. The Beveridge Pit.-This pit was sunk near Baldridge Row

in the absence of any authentic record, and in the belief of a tradition extant among the aged colliers that a large piece of splint coal had been left there by the "old people." But the old waste, full of water, was pierced within thirty yards to the south of the pit bottom. The pit was in operation, however, for some years, as another small piece of coal was discovered, and the fivefeet seam was partially worked. Several very ancient and curious implements of miners were found in some of the old water mines, such as hammers, mells, and pinches. The wooden handles were sound and fresh, but the iron was entirely corroded and wasted, although the steel facings of the hammers were perfectly entire. It is thought that some of them are still preserved. Wooden pumps were also found imbedded in two or three feet of ochre, in the bottom of the mines. These relics could not be less than 120 years old.

3. The John Pit.-This pit is situated in the centre of the coal-field, west from the Engine Pit. The splint coal was long ago exhausted, but there is a large extent of five-feet yet to work.

The shaft at present serves as a ventilating upcast shaft for the Leadside and Waterloo workings, the mouth being entirely closed at the surface, except an air-passage which leads the current through an air-tight chamber, over and through a large furnace carrying a constant and powerful draught from the shaft upwards, through a chimney fifty feet high, at the top of which the air which has been consumed by the colliers, and the "styfe," are discharged along with the smoke of the furnace, fresh air rushing constantly down the working shafts and through the air-courses to supply the place of the exhausted and foul air.

4. The Engine Pit.-This pit, which was formerly used for pumping the water from the coal-field, was stopped about six years ago, the old wastes being mostly full of water, and the mining operations of the colliery being now independent of drainage by steam machinery, consequent on the neighbouring collieries working the same seams at a lower level.

Output and Markets.-The quantity of coals raised from all

* The smoke of the lamps, gunpowder, and damp foul air, is generally called by the miners, stufe.

the pits, in the year ending May 1856, was 100,000 tons. The coal demand of late years has increased very much, from the greater number of ironworks and steam factories, as well as from the greater consumption in house fires, and by bakers, &c.

The shipping trade was for some time lately not quite so extensively carried on as before, owing to other markets being opened up, and the great competition of the coal-ports on the Forth, and also of the railways, as well as the increased production of steam coals in Northumberland, South Wales, and elsewhere; but it has now reached, and even exceeded, its former extent.

The Leith and London, Hamburg and Hull, Aberdeen and Inverness steamboat companies are entirely supplied with Wellwood coal at Charlestown.

The export trade is now chiefly to the Baltic ports.

A considerable quantity is now shipped every year for foreign ports by rail at Tayport and Dundee Docks, for the Baltic, Mediterranean, Australia, &c.

The inland market for household and manufacturing coal, as developed by the railways, in the north of Scotland, from Fife and Stirling to Aberdeen, is now, although in its infancy, a large and annually increasing trade. As these railways are extended, so will the Fife coal-trade increase: coals, being cheapened in the carriage, will continue to supplant sea-borne coal in the coast towns, and peat and wood in the inland and rural districts. The railway market in Edinburgh, Leith, &c., south of the Burntisland ferry, is now much increased.

The Gas-Works of Perth, Dundee, and other towns in the north, now use some of the five-feet coal, to mix with parrot coal, for the manufacture of gas,-the coke or residue of the five-feet, which is left after the extraction of the gas, being sold by the gas companies at a good price, for malting, &c.

The Rouen or Seine market is now entirely supplied from Newcastle, South Wales, Ayrshire, and the Belgian railways.

Coke Ovens.-There are now six ovens constantly in operation, in which 1500 tons of five-feet coal are annually converted into coke. The richest of the five-feet is found to be well adapted for this manufacture, the coke being very superior for malting; and for this purpose it is almost entirely used by brewers and distillers. It is not so well adapted for locomotive engines and

foundries, not being heavy enough, or not having enough of body. The brewers and distillers in and near Alloa are supplied with it by rail, as are also many of the distilleries in the east of Fife, and in the counties of Perth and Forfar.

Part of the produce of the ovens is taken away by carts for malting and drying grain in mills, in the surrounding country. Railways.-The branches from the different pits to the Elgin Railway at the Colton station, west end of Golf-Drum Street in the town of Dunfermline, are still in operation, and are worked by horses, and by that railway the shipping at Charlestown is supplied. In the same manner, and at the same station, the traffic to the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway is conveyed in the Railway Company's trucks, and thence via Stirling, along the Scottish Central Railway northward.

A new and independent railway was constructed in 1850, to join the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee Company's Townhill Branch, at Townhill. It commences at the Leadside Pit, to the east of which it crosses the Outh or Roscobie road, and thence by the Albert Pit along the north edge of the Town Loch to Townhill, being fully a mile long. By means of this line a connection is formed with all the railways to which the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee line gives access.

System of working the Coal.-The Longwall or Shropshire method is still the one adopted in mining the seams. The waste behind the miners is packed with small coal and rubbish, and propped with posts of wood, the whole seam being excavated, and the vacancy of about four feet high or more is generally lessened in about six months to nearly fifteen inches by the roof and superincumbent strata sinking down. The Longwall method is not so economical, in itself, as the pillar system of leaving supports of coal, for the former requires a large quantity of propwood, and entails extra expense in making roads for the underground tramways, and most of the small coals are lost. But in the end, the Longwall method is the best, particularly for the proprietor of the coalfield, as the whole of the seam is worked and sold, and the field thereby lasts much longer. If this method had not been adopted at this colliery, it would have been completely exhausted of workable coal many years ago.