A Description of the Several Strata of Earth, Stone, Coal, etc. Found in a Coal-Pit at the West End of Dudley in Straffordshire: By Mr. Fettiplace Bellers, F. R. S. To Which is Added, a Table of the Specifick Gravity of Each Stratum: By Mr Fr. Hauksbee, F. R. S. Communicated by Dr. Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr.

XI. A Description of the several Strata of Earth, Stone, Coal, &c. found in a Coal-Pit at the West End of Dudley in Staffordshire: By Mr. Fettiplace Bellers, F. R. S. To which is added, a Table of the Specifick Gravity of each Stratum: By Mr Fr. Hauksbee, F. R. S. Communicated by Dr. Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr. I. A Yellowish Clay, which lies immediately under the Turf. II. A Blewish Clay. III. A Blewish hard Clay; the Miners call it Clunch. This is one of the certain Signs of Coal. It has in it Mineral Plants. IV. A Blewish soft Clay. V. A fine-grained Gray Stone: It lies next the former, and is found in some Pits only. VI. A Clay almost like the First, only whiter. VII. A hard Gray Rock; with something like the Impressions of Vegetables, but none distinct. VIII. A Blew Clunch, like Numb. 3. with Mineral Plants in it. VIII. +. This Stratum (which is the same with Numb. 13.) was not taken. IX. Coal, called Bench-Coal. X. Coal, less black and shining than the former, called Slipper-Coal. XI. Coal, more black and shining, called Spin-Coal. XII. A Coal like Cannal-Coal, by the Miners called Stone Coal. These Strata of Coal have between each of them a Bat, of about the thickness of a Crown Piece. XIII. A black Substance, called the Dun-Row-Bat. XIV. A hard grey Iron Oar, called the Dun-Row Iron-Stone. XV. A blewish Bat, in which the following Iron-Stone lyes, called the White-Row. XVI. A hard blackish Iron Oar, lying in small Nodules, having between them a white Substance; and from thence by the Miners called the White-Row-Grains, or Iron Stone. XVII. A hard grey Iron Oar, with some white spots in it, called the Mid-row Grains. XVIII. A black fissile Substance, called the Gublin-Bat. XIX. A hard blackish Iron Oar, with white spots in it, called the Gublin Iron-Stone. XX. A Bat, in Substance much like that of Numb. XVIII. XXI. A hard grey Iron Oar, called the Cannoc, or Cannot-Iron-Stone. XXII. A Bat, somewhat harder than Numb. XX. XXIII. A dark, gray, hard Iron Oar, called the Rubble Iron-Stone. XXIV. The Table-Bat, next under the Rubble Iron-Stone. XXV. A coarse sort of Coal, called the Foot-Coal. XXVI. A black, brittle, shining Bat. XXVII. The Heathen-Coal. XXVIII. A Substance like a coarse Coal, but by the Miners called a Bat; perhaps because it does not burn well. XXIX. The Bench-Coal. XXX. XXX. A Bat under the last, and is as low (viz. 188½ Feet) as they generally dig, tho' there is a coarse Coal under this. N.B. Those Substances, which divide the Strata of Coals and Iron Oars from each other, are called Bats by the Miners: They are generally black, consisting of a Matter peculiar to themselves, and are of a Texture nearest like Marle; tho' some of them are fissile, and others have a Substance not unlike Coal mixt with them. A Table of the Thickness of each Stratum, and its Proportion to Water, or Specifick Gravity. | Number of the Strata | Thickness of each Stratum. Feet. Inches | Proportion to Water, | Or Specifick Gravity. | |----------------------|----------------------------------------|---------------------|-----------------------| | I. | 4 0 | as 385 to 192 | as 200 to 100 | | II. | 5 0 | 296 168 | 176 | | III. | 24 0 | 23 9 | 256 | | IV. | 9 0 | 209 106 | 197 | | V. | 4 0 | 583 237 | 246 | | VI. | 21 0 | 401 192 | 209 | | VII. | 75 0 | 683 259 | 243 | | VIII. | 5 0 | 223 88 | 253 | | VIII+. | 1 0 | — | — | | IX. | 3 0 | 7 5 | 140 | | X. | 3 0 | 106 72 | 147 | | XI. | 4 0 | 147 114 | 129 | | XII. | 4 0 | 185 143 | 130 | | XIII. | 1 0 | 408 198 | 206 | | XIV. | 0 1 | 204 67 | 303 | | XV. | 0 3 | 183 72 | 254 | | XVI. | 1 3 | 325 232 | 334 | | XVII. | 0 2 | 781 244 | 320 | | Number of the Strata | Thickness of each Stratum. Feet. Inches | Proportion to Water, as 305 to 129 | Or Specifick Gravity, as 236 to 109 | |----------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------|-----------------------------------| | XVIII. | 2 0 | | | | XIX. | 0 9 | 920 266 | 346 | | XX. | 1 6 | 192 76 | 253 | | XXI. | 0 6 | 675 216½ | 313 | | XXII. | 1 0 | 428 165 | 290 | | XXIII. | 0 6 | 828 231 | 358 | | XXIV. | 2 0 | 333 153 | 218 | | XXV. | 1 0 | 198 154 | 128 | | XXVI. | 6 0 | 238 141 | 169 | | XXVII. | 6 0 | 298 236½ | 126 | | XXVIII. | 0 1 | 267 186 | 144 | | XXIX. | 2 0 | 314 240 | 131 | | XXX. | 0 6 | 244 133 | 183 | By which it is evident, that the Gravities of the several Strata are in no manner of Order; but purely casual, as if mixt by chance.