390 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. August 23, 1918. DEEP BORINGS FOR COAL. The Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey of Great Britain for 1917 contains particulars of two deep borings for coal—one near Market Weighton, and the other at Kelham. Market Weighton Boring. In 1912-14 two borings were put down, of which the first was abandoned at about 1,000 ft. depth. The second hole was commenced a few yards away and was carried down to a depth of 3,100 ft. The site is 440 yards north of the Reformatory School, 2| miles south- west of Market Weighton, on the north side of the Market Weighton Canal, at a height of 30 ft. above O.D. It is 14J miles north-east of a boring for coal at Barlow, and 17 miles nearly due north of a boring near Scunthorpe, which is said to have proved coal measures. Continuous cores were drawn from the first hole; in the second, percussion drilling, with occasional recourse to a diamond crown, was adopted. Below 2,100 ft. almost continuous cores were obtained, and at 3,100 ft. a core, 3J in. in diameter, was produced. No appreciable dip could be determined, and, since the deflection of the hole was shown to be slight, the thickness of 3,100 ft. proved in the boring can be taken as the true thickness. The following strata were traversed: — Thickness. Ft. in. Superficial 2 0 Keuper marl ... 634 0 Keuper waterstones ... 68 0 Bunter sandstone ... 1,425 0 Uppei' permian marl ... 212 0 Upper permian limestone ... ... 141 0 Middle permian marl 29 0 Lower permian limestone ... 589 3 Total ... ... 3,100 3 The small thickness of the superficial deposits is in agreement with neighbouring tracts. The keuper marls in the first boring consist of a homogeneous mass of red variegated marl, streaked with gypsum and with occasional interbedded thin layers of hard, red and grey sandstone (skerries). The so-called “conglomerates” of the second boring are likely to have been red marl containing rounded con- cretions of lime (“race”). A thickness of 634 ft. was proved, but the boring entered the marls about 200 ft. below their summit. Below the keuper marls the coarse, light-grey sand- stones, 68 ft. thick, agree with similar beds that occur beneath the keuper marl of Nottinghamshire, and are there classed with the keuper water stones. Below the waterstones the boring traversed red sandstones down to 2,129 ft. depth, bands of red marl, one of them 22 ft, thick, occurring at intervals. Pebbles of quartz and other rocks are absent, though pellets of red marl give the appearance of con- glomerates on the outside of cores. This may be the explanation of the “conglomerate” at 1,830 ft., but it is difficult to assign that at 1,879 ft. to any part of the bunter formation as revealed in borings north of the Humber. The sandstones are all fine grained, becoming more loamy and micaceous in the lower part. They are chiefly red in colour, and grey sandstones, such as occur in several borings—notably at Strensall, in the Vale of York—are absent. The upper permian marl is considered as com- mencing at the first band of red marl with gypsum, but there is little difference in appearance between these marls and those in the bunter. Brine issued from the boring about the depth of 2,303 ft., and stringers of rock salt were found in the cores below this depth. The upper permian limestone consists chiefly of pale cream-coloured limestone, with occasional bands of fine grey limestone. A few obscure casts of shells were obtained by Mr. Manson. The middle permian marls are much thinner than those found in other borings of the Humber region, but resemble them in character and in the local de- velopment of a bed of rock salt. The lower permian limestone varies much in texture and colour. It is usually compact, unfossiliferous, and contains large clots of amorphous anhydrite. This mineral also occurs separately as crystals, sometimes arranged in a spherulitic manner. The solid, com- pact mass, 221 ft. thick, of grey and bluish-grey anhydrite, from 2,879 ft. depth down to the bottom of the boring, is exceptional. At Selby and Barlow borings bands of anhydrite, 18 and 20 ft. thick, occur in the upper permian marls, and a thin band in the upper limestone, but in the lower limestone there are only interspersed anhydrite and gypsum. At Market Weighton 368 ft. of limestone lies above the anhydrite, and as a greater thickness of limestone is found in other borings to the south-west, it is possible that the anhydrite was deposited at Market Weighton, while limestone was laid down to the south-west in the manner suggested for the thick mass of anhydrite at Hartlepool (C. T. Trechmann, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. Ixix., 1913, pp. 184-218). The boring, how- ever, fails to reach the base of the permian, and the anhydrite may represent the basement shales found in borings to the south. The results obtained by the Market Weighton boring dissipate any hopes that the triassic and. permian formations thin away north of the Humber; on the contrary, each of these formations, when compared with other borings to the south, has shown a marked expansion. It might be suggested that the trias and permian rocks of Market Weighton owe their thick- ness to their occupying a local depression, but the easterly slope of the floor, as determined in borings to the south-west of Market Weighton, is sufficient to carry the floor 100 ft. below the bottom of the borehole. Kelham Boring. The boring at Kelham was made in the years 1908-12 in search of coal. The site is on the left bank of the Trent, 1| miles W.S.W. of the Midland Railway Station at Newark, in the New Series 1 in. Map, sheet 126, and the Old Series Geological Map, sheet 70. The surface of the ground is about 40 ft. above Ordnance datum, and the dip of the strata was inappreciable. The coal measures were reached at a depth of 1,401 ft. from the surface, and the strata down to that depth have already been described. The remainder of the section is now made known by permission of the Coal and Iron Development Syndicate through Mr. J. Ford, M.I.Min.Eng., ' F.G.S., under whose superintendence the boring was made. The following seams of coal were traversed at the depths specified : — Thickness. Ft. In. Depth. Ft. In. Coal measures— Coal and dirt ... 1 6 1,445 6 Coal 3 ft. 2 in. Parting 2 in. Coal 1 ft. 0 in. ... 6 6 1,513 0 Parting 3 in. Coal 1 ft. 11 in. Coal and fireclay ... ... 1 6 1,559 6 Coal ... 1 0 1,593 3 Coal ... 1 7 1,681 7 Coal ... 1 2 1,693 2 Coal and bat ... 1 2 1,998 2 Coal (Alton coal or Halifax hard mine) ... ... ... 1 5^ 2,314 7i The boring was continued down through millstone grit (2,366 ft. to 2,452 ft.), an intermediate series con- sisting of millstone grit or carboniferous limestone shales (2,482 ft. to 2,500 ft.), and carboniferous lime- stone shales (2,502 ft. to 2,619 ft. The lowest strata, 18 ft. 9 in. thick, were found by Dr. Gibson to consist of calcareous and fossiliferous shales with an earthy limestone, penetrated for 1 ft., at their base. The limestone yielded a fragment of a compound coral. The “hard white stone” at a depth of 2,542 ft. 6 in. was a siliceous band or “ crowstone,” characteristic of the upper part of the carboniferous limestone series. The igneous rock met with at a depth of 1,715 ft. 6 in. is described in “ The Concealed Coal Field of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire” (Mem. Geol. Surv., 1913, p. 58). It may be classed as a teschenite, with some unusual characters. The section proved in the borehole admits of more than one interpretation, and the identity of the seam proved at 1,513 ft. is in doubt. By Messrs. Ford M. Deacon and C. R. Hewitt it is regarded as the Top Hard seam, but the fact that the Alton coal was identi- fied only 800 ft. below it suggests the possibility of its being a seam much lower in the series than the Top Hard. The lower coal measures extend to a depth of 2,354 ft., and no more than 148 ft. of strata at most can be classed as millstone grit, or scarcely an eighth part of the thickness of this sub-division at its outcrop, upwards of 26 miles farther west. It is necessary, therefore, to infer that the boring passed through at least one fault. The identification of the so-called Top Hard as one of the lower seams, and a supposition that the millstone grit is faulted against the carboniferous limestone shales, would account for the observed facts, and there is inde- pendent evidence that the borehole is situated on or near a line of fault which throws the beds down to the south-west. An alternative supposition is that attenuation on a rapid scale takes place eastwards, both in the middle coal measures and in the millstone grit. COAL EXPORTS IN JULY. The Board of Trade returns show that the tonnage of coal, coke and patent fuel exported during July and the first seven months of 1918, as compared with the corresponding periods in 1916 and 1917, was as follows:— Quantities. 1916. 1917. 1918. Tons. Tons. Tons. July.............. 3,574,137 ... 3,395,365 ... 3,044,174 Seven mon ths.... 24,078,824 ... 22,856,736 ... 19,597,392 The next table shows the values of these exports for the same periods :— Values. 1916. 1917. 1918. July............. £4,824,952 ... £4,600,344 ... £4,658,878 Seven months £23,128,113 ... £30,462,891 ... £28,161,691 Bradford Coal Trade Association.—At the instance of Mr. H. Mosley, the local coal trade supervisor under the fuel rationing Order, a meeting of Bradford coal dealers, other than merchants, was held on Thursday, last week. Mr. Mosley strongly urged the dealers to form a local association in order to deal with the problems arising out of the rationing Order and out of the demands of military service. He instanced the great success which had resulted from the labours of the coal merchants’ section of the Chamber of Trade, and suggested that the best form of organisation for the dealers would be to form a section of the Chamber, rather than an independent association. The meeting adopted his suggestion. Mr. J. W. North was appointed chairman, and Messrs. R. Craig and E. Gibson were elected 'vice-chairmen. A proposal that merchants be definitely excluded was not pressed. British Potash Industry.—In connection with the scheme for the recovery of potash on a large scale in the manu- facture of Cleveland pig iron, attention is drawn to the progress of the movement generally for the development of the British potash industry. Mr. A. S. Esslemont, the Controller of Potash Production, has actively interested himself ui the investigations. Mr. K. M. Chance, managing director of the British Potash Company (half the shares of which were taken by the British Government), estimates that for each 1,000 tons of pig iron produced in this country there is fed into the blast furnaces with the ore and coke sufficient raw material to produce from 15 to 30 tons of potash, equal to 200,000 tons in a year. Of this potential wealth 150,000 tons pass through the furnaces and away in the slag in insoluble form, and 50,000 tons are volatilised and carried from the furnaces in the gas. About one-fifth is recovered from the heavy dust and from the stoves and boiler flues after the combustion of the gas. MINERS* FEDERATION CONFERENCE. A special conference of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain was held in Southport this week, commencing on Tuesday. At the opening of the conference Sir Guy Calthrop, Coal Controller, made a strong appeal for a substantial increase of output. He dwelt upon three aspects of the present coal situation—first, the need for more coal; second, the duty to produce more coal; and third, the way to bring it about. It was not possible for him to present a precise balance sheet of the na‘ion’s requirements and commitments in the matter of coa], because these fluc- tuated almost from week to week. The shortage was due to the withdrawal of 75,000 Grade 1 miners from the coal mines, the German success in March and April, which rendered unworkable a considerable portion of the coal field in the Pas-de-Calais district, and to the ever-increasing demand of the Americans for coal to be used by their expeditionary force to France—a demand coming upon a shortage of something like 36,000,000 tons this year. By the rationing of household coal and gas and electricity throughout the country, he hoped to save eight or nine million tons on the year, and this left a balance of about 27,000,000 tons of coal to be found. This deficit could only be met by rationing coal to those industries not directly concerned in war work, but who, nevertheless, were important not only for what they produced, but on account of the number of people they employed. Allies’ Economies and Needs. The economies and privations of our Allies in the matter of coal far exceeded anything he was asking the people of this country to submit to, either as house- holders or consumers of industrial coal. In Italy last winter there were only eight cities which had any public lighting at all, s) acute was the shortage of coal. Italy had not more than sufficient coal for the working of her railways and the industries connected with the prepara- tion of war materials, and could not provide anything for domestic use. Another fact the miners had to bear in mind was that every day the American troops were pouring into France, and this meant increased demands for shipping and all the things that coal was required for. This demand was constantly increasing. Then we were exporting considerable quantities of coal to neutrals, because it was a thing with which we could barter. We bartered coal for ships, iron ore, and food- stuffs, and the ships we got were largely employed in bringing food to this country and carrying coal to our Allies. We had secured something like 800,000 tons of neutral shipping by this process of bargaining, and this had helped us enormously to beat the submarine campaign. Owing to the short output of coal, for some time we had not carried out our obligations either to our Allies or to the neutrals. He quite realised that the taking of 75,000 Grade 1 men for the Army, and* the influenza epidemic, had seriously affected the output. A Precarious Situation. The output for July was the worst for any month since the war started, being only 15,736,000 tons, or a decrease of nearly 3,300,000 tons. April, May, and June were bad enough, but July had made the situa- tion precarious. He was particularly anxious that the miners should realise that they were combatants in the struggle, for coal lay at the root of nearly every munition of war. He had been criticised because from the rationing scheme he had excluded miners, but he realised that while some members of a household worked on a day shift others worked at night, and clothes had to be dried and fires kept going night and day. At the same time he trusted that the miners would not use an ounce more coal than necessary, as every economy thus effected helped the country, not the coal owners. The financial arrangements between the Government and the owners were such that, with certain exceptions collieries were guaranteed only their pre-war standard of profit. The proposal was that the campaign for increasing the output of coal should be left with the district, and that was why he took the opportunity of meeting the representatives of all the districts and urging them to make this campaign a real one. He wanted them to see it was an organised campaign, and continuous over the whole of the winter months. The Miners on their Honour. Sir Guy, concluding, said he wanted the delegates to tell the men that an extra ton of coal now was worth more than an extra ton three jnonths hence, because in the longer days transit was more easy than in the shorter days of the late autumn and winter. It had been said that one of the reasons why the men would not work was that they did not like to pay income tax. If that was a reason why output was restricted at the present time, he asked the men to apply the words of their executive’s manifesto referring to profiteering by coal owners. This ought not to be taken as a reason at the present time for the coal miners not doing their utmost to maintain the output of coal. He did not believe the miners, when they fully knew the situation, would fail to put forward their utmost effort and diligence |to do all they could to meet the country’s wants. None of them wanted to lose the war. He urged them to be careful not to run any risks in that respect. He went further, and said without hesitation, that the honour of their Federation was at stake. The Government conceded the demands made by their executive on the distinct pledge, given without any reservation, that no effort would be spared by the miners to increase the output and meet the nation’s vital needs at a moment of great danger. It was the men’s duty to see that that pledge was made good, and he put it to them that they could not get away from this obligation. Messages from Beatty and Haig. The Controller finally read a message to the miners from Admiral Beatty, who said:— Without a regular supply of t coal the Navy would be immobilised, and we feel sure the miners will readily respond to the further calls upon their patriotism.