The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-06 00:00:00

COAL REAR LONDON.

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of the Times t---
Sir,--The letters which have appeared in your columns,
and thofe with which I have been favoured privately in
consequence of the insertion of my letter to you of the
28th ult., convince me that a serious amount to miscon-
ception prevalent, oven among educated classes, upon
the subject thus brought before the public. Without,
therefore, assuming
to teach an abstract science in a few
lines, I feel it incumbent upon me (as the person who,
by your permi,sion, raised the discussion) to call atten-
tion to some of the most serious errors which have thus
be'en shown to prevail.
In the first place your correspondent "Post the Coal"
and some of the gentlemen who have written to me pri-
vately have been misled into the belief in the existence
of coal deposits near London by the occurrence of beds
of lignite in the Bagshot sand formation. the history
of the Worplesdoa Colliery Company was a sad com•
m upon the eagerness with which these tales of
coal near
ar London are received, and upon the inevitable
disappointment they must ,bring to those who are foolish
enough to believe that any workable deposits of fossil
fuel are to be found in the strata above the new red
sandstone. In the second place I would observe that
the lignite beds of the Bagshot sand district may perhaps
occur of a sufficient thickness to render it worth while
to work them for local purposes, just as the Bovey coal
is worked in North Devon ; bat neither their quantity
nor their quality will be found to be such as to repay
operations upon a large scale, or for the delivery of the
material so raised at a distance,

"The circumstance which induces me to believe that
there is a possibility of finding coal near London is pre-
cisely the occurrence of beds which I have reason to
suppose are members of the new red sandstone series
nearer to the surface than ,they were formerly considered
to be. Unlike " Post the Coal;" however, Ido not de-
sire to make any absolute assertion on this eubject sim-
ply from an inspection of the plants on the surfice or
the character of the soil and waters. There are far more
things in geology than are, I fear, dreamt of in his phi-
losophy ; and when the most able men of the co entry
have been unable to decide upon the pric se character of
the Highgate beds, after the boring had been continued
in it for a depth of above 180 feet, it would be very pre-
sumptuous were I to speak positively from the results of
a boring in the red clays only 8 feet deep. It is, however,
the simultaneous discovery of the beds of red clay, 63
strikingly like the analogous clays of the new red sand-
stone series, which gives such importance to their occur-
rence at Highgate and at Horsham, and I do not think
that I am exaggerating when I say there are few geo-
logical problems which it would be more necessary to
solve than that connected with the precise nature of
these beds of red clay. A sum of 3001. would, I think,
suffice to set that question at rest. If it should be found
that these beds were 'indeed such as I suspect them to
be, it would then be worth while to bore forecoal, and
the results of similar operations in the department of
the Pas de Calais have been cirtainly of a nature to en-
courage such operations ; but it must be evident to every
one who has; studied even the rudiments of geology that
no coal can be found until the whole thickness of the
supposed new red sandstone beds shall have been tra-
versed, and even then the operation of boring may fail
to discover the objects of the "researches" for which it
was undertaken. Of the borings recorded by Messrs.
Degoussee and Laurent, as having been executed of late
years in the Valenciennes coal basin, 67 in number, no
less than 17, or about 1 in 4, gave negative results.
It seems to me that the landowners of the district ne: r
Horsham, under the guidance of the bench of magistrate.
would do wisely if they were to subscribe for the purpose
of trying the first experiment, as they are mo,t directly
interested in the solution et the problem. Tile's= I
have named would, I think, suffice for the purpse, and
at any rate the boring might be ,made of use for the
water supply of the district, even if nothing else Caine
of the matter. At present it would be folly to attempt
to estimate the cost
of further researches for coal. The
artesian boring now in course of execution at Passy,
ing
evenb that
Ahreallyreally
sum occurhere h
e attempt
mtotu
tl do
pass
swtohrrtohu
position init that "no
the public re' y depend upon
coal" will be found "near 4it be in some
sequence of strata have bereninmaroydified ; and hhitle.heimis.k.
which
theo ordinary
unlessoe
geological
laws of
but small deposits of lignite are to be fountidialtenaontyhine!
the more relcernetwstariztae.ir
your obedient servant,
14, Lincoln'e-inn•fieldg, Nov. 3.
G. R. BURNELL, C.E.

A TONGUE FOR, "BIG BEN."—Tho county of Durham
may fairly claim the parentage of " Big Ben," for We
understand that Mr. G. Hopper, of the Houghton-le-
Spring Ironworks; near Durham, is now engaged in sup-
plyingtongue.
This fine apecimenwrought
ironwohim
rkiswnitoh a
wlyiof lying at Mr. Hopper's new ironworks
at Fence Houses, where workmen are now employed in
fitting and finishing it prior to its being despatched to
London. The part of the clapper which strikes the bell
is .composed, of a monster spheroid of solid wrought iron,
the diameter of which is 24 inches. It is expected that
the whole when 'finished will weigh somewhere about
1,6001 b,