April 9, 1914. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 795 a dependant within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. Their lordships decided in favour of the child being entitled to compensation. The annual meeting of the Mining Institute of Scotland will be held at Glasgow on Saturday? 11th inst. A paper on “ Sinking and Equipment o^ Blairhall Colliery ” will be read by Mr. Archibald M. Bussell, while a second dealing with mining economies will be contributed by Mr. John Gibson. An ordinary general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will take place in London on Friday, 24th inst. This year the summer meeting will be held in Paris on July 6. Before the members of the North Staffordshire Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers on Monday, Mr. G. H. Greatbatch described the training of rescue brigades at the North Staffordshire Coal- owners’ Rescue Station at Stoke-on-Trent. - An interesting paper on “ Deepening a Shaft by a Rise Method ” was read by Mr. Hugh B. Pilkington? on Tuesday, at the meeting of the Manchester Geological and Mining Society. A meeting of the members of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers was held at Newcastle, on Saturday, when Mr. W. C. Mountain read a paper dealing with the utilisation of exhaust steam for collieries and iron- works. Relative to the resolution passed by the South Wales and Monmouthshire Miners’ Federation in regard to the alleged delay in the publication of the Senghenydd enquiry report, the Home Secretary states that he has given instructions that the report be expedited as much as possible. The second reading of the Coal Mines Bill has been deferred until Tuesday next. On the same day the second reading of the Checkweighing in Various Industries Bill will be taken. The second reading of. the Pawning Industrial Tools Bill has been postponed until Thursday, the 16th inst., whilst the date fixed for the same stage of the Compensation for Mineral Damage (Scotland) Bill is Wednesday, the 29th inst. A meeting between the National Union of Rail- waymen, the Transport Workers’ Federation, and the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain will be held on the 23rd inst. to discuss the proposal of the adoption of a working arrangement by the three unions. The annual conference of the South Wales Miners’ Federation was opened on Monday at Cardiff. The conference concluded on Tuesday, when a resolution was carried seeking prohibition of the use of electricity for motive power in fiery mines. The North Wales miners have decided to suspend their notices for 14 days, to permit a meeting between their representatives and the owners taking place. Lord Balfour of Burleigh has been called in to act as arbiter at the Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board meeting which is to be held on the 17th inst. to consider the application of the owners for a reduc- tion in the miners’ wages of 25 per cent, upon the basis of 1888. Despite prolonged conferences between the repre- sentatives of the parties concerned, the pits in Yorkshire continue idle, with the natural result that industries which depend upon coal for their maintenance have had to suffer. The Miners’ Federation discussed the matter at a special meeting yesterday morning, and in the afternoon another meeting of the joint committee of the Conciliation Board was held, which further adjourned until Thursday next without reaching any decision on the matter. Prof. J. J. Stevenson has at length The Origin finished his important and elaborate Of monograph on the formation of coal- Coalseams. beds.*1 A careful study of this pains- taking and laborious research conveys a twofold impression—viz., that few subjects have been more thoroughly discussed, and that we are still lacking a complete answer to the problems involved. The author, himself confesses that many things still await elucidation, and he very truly remarks that no * See Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vols. ]., li., lii. large coalfield has yet been closely studied, and there is an astounding want of detailed knowledge respecting things which appear to be of purely academic interest, and have no obvious bearing upon the commercial aspect of getting coal. It must, however, always be a matter of consider- able doubt where to draw the dividing line, between the academic and practical sides of the geology of coalseams. And wherever that line may be drawn to-day, there is no certainty that the demands of the future will not overstep the boundary thus arbitrarily defined. To some it may seem to be a matter of mere romantic interest to attempt to reproduce the topography and geography of the old land surface upon which the coal measures were laid down. When we think, however, of the practical difficulties sometimes encountered in coalmining, and arising out of such commonly occurring phenomena as the bifurcation of coalseams, the sudden appearance of wash-outs, vertical and horizontal variations in the quality of the coal, and similar vagaries which coal- seams toO often exhibit, we are led to think that some practical advantage might accrue if more were known of the origin of such abnormal features. The mere fact that we can apply to them the term abnormal is only a confession of ignorance as to their true cause. Who will deny that some of the diffi- culties and uncertainties encountered in coalmining might be simplified if we could regard these features not as abnormal developments, but as the natural con- sequences of ascertained laws governing the deposi- tion of the seams ? Take again that important and difficult matter, the correlation of coalseams. Surely much light would be thrown upon this question if we could reproduce with some approach to accuracy the geographical conditions of their deposition. But this can only be accomplished by a careful study of coalfield lithology, and by paying far more attention than we now do to the strata by which the coalseams are separated from each other. Prof. Stevenson has made out a strong case for a more scientific study of each coalfield as a whole. There is an overwhelming mass of information respecting detached portions of many areas, and here and there an attempt has been made to bring this knowledge together in a form suitable for generalisa- tion. Perhaps one of the most conspicuous examples of this, in the British area, is the elaborate work done by Mr. Jordan in regard to the coalfields of South Wales and Monmouthshire. The magnitude of such a . task, however, seems to be appalling, and it is given to few to possess both the facilities and the qualifications necessary for the work, combining as it does the need for a close acquaintance with underground conditions, not in one mine but in many, with the faculty of geological observation and generalisation. No colliery official in these strenuous times could afford to divert his attention into such side channels as these. No man of leisure and scientific attainments could readily acquire the intimate knowledge of underground conditions necessary for such a purpose. So pure science is the poorer, and practical mining is less certain and more empirical than it might otherwise be. But we have been led far away from Prof. Stevenson’s conclusions, which appear to be in favour of the peat bog theory of the origin of coal seams. u The coal beds,” he says, “ in all essential features, bear remarkable resemblance to peat deposits, sometimes to the treeless moor, more frequently to the wM moor.” He refers the detrital deposits to flooding waters over wide- spreading plains, and to this we would add that possibly there were bog movements from the same cause. In such a manner might possibly be reconciled the two rival • theories of coal formation, each of which can claim so many supporting facts, that neither has hitherto lacked a strong body of adherents. The whole problem of the origin of coalseams is rendered still more complex by the fact of contempora- neous earth movements. It is a paradox of coal measure geology that geographical conditions of unexampled uniformity, both in space and time, were apparently associated with oscillations of level of a kind and degree unknown in any other geological period. For although coal has been formed at other and .-later, stages of the earth’s history, the conditions of upper carboniferous times have had no parallel in the stratigraphical sequence- British Columbia and its New Coalfields. Whatever effect the opening of the Panama Canal may have upon the coal markets of the New World and the Far East, it cannot be doubted that the collieries situated upon the Pacific Coast may look for benefits of no mean order. The magnitude of these benefits must depend upon the quality of the coal in the first instance, because the transportation problem, which has hitherto kept many of the virgin properties that lie to the North in abeyance, will be solved as soon as the demand for fuel becomes insistent. Interest in the development of these neglected areas in British Columbia has been greatly stimulated by the intelligence that Mr. D. A. Thomas, the head of the Cambrian Collieries, who appreciates to the full the consequences of the Panama Canal, has become interested in the Peace River coalfield, which lies on the northern border of Alberta. Simultaneously, the Canadian House of Commons has reported favourably on the Bill granting a charter to the Pacific Peace River and Athabasca Company, which proposes to construct a railway from the mouth of the Nass River, 40 miles north of Prince Rupert, easterly through the Rocky Mountain region and the plains. The important feature of this new railway is that it will tap not only the Peace River coalfield but the great Groundhog Mountain coalfield and several other areas in which the presence of large quantities of valuable coal has been ascertained. With the exception of small areas of tertiary sediments, all the coals of British Columbia belong to the cretaceous age, those of Vancouver occurring in the upper beds of the cretaceous, whilst the bituminous coals and anthracites of the Rocky Mountains and in the interior of British Columbia and Yukon belong to the lower formations. In his report to the International Congress at Toronto,*1 Dr. Dowling estimates a probable reserve of 5,114 square miles in the northern interior of British Columbia, containing coals of all grades, amounting to 8,200,000,000 character of the coals table : — is shown metric tons. The in the following District. | Yjr 5,450 (. Sub-bituminous J 160 ... Bituminous ... 1,400 f Sub-bituminous... —• 4 Ditto ... — (. Bituminous ... — Kispiox River Groundhog M. Sustut River.. Peace & Pine Rivers— Dunvegan series....’.. 1 ... 2 ... 4,900 Peace River Canyon ... 14 ... 10 ... Parsnip R. 4 Liard River > Unexplored, Taku River J - Totals ............. 5,114 ... ... 8,200 Some of these areas lie far to the north on the southern edge of the Yukon and the Mackenzie river districts, but the others, about which more definite information is available, are situated within close reach of the projected railway. Of these possibly the most important is the Groundhog Mountain coalfield, concerning which much has been heard that possibly savours too greatly of optimism. The area lies on the head- waters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers. The coal is all semi-anthracitic, and in some instances is classed as anthracite. Mr. Fleetwood Robertson, the Provincial Mineralogist for British Columbia in 1912 made a trip to the coalfield, and his report is given in full in the ‘‘ Annual Report of the Minister of Mines ” for that year. The coalfields lie from 5,000 to 7,000 feet above sea-level, and only in the southern part has any serious attempt been made to develop the deposits. Mr. Robertson estimates the total area of coal lands as in the vicinity of 2,000 square miles, but the field has been greatly disturbed by thrusts and other dislocations. The coal so far found in the outcrops is greatly shattered and full of partings, but investigations in the less dis- ’* The' Coal Resources of the World. Montreal, 1913.