Joseph Beete Jukes

“ I have no doubt of the process of accumulation being a very slow and gradual one, for I have long been accustomed to look upon the time required for the formation of any wide spread bed of stratified rock whatever, even a single foot in thickness, as one to be measured only by the lapse of scores of years, perhaps by that of centuries. Each bed of coal is certainly made up of thin laminæ, which are obviously laminæ of deposition, every tenth or every hundredth of an inch requiring a distinct period for its production, as in the case of all other laminated rocks. ”

“ By following down a little valley and its tiny rill of water, an immense gulf is unexpectedly seen through the trees which border the pathway, at the depth of perhaps 1500 feet. Walking on a few yards one stands on the brink of a vast precipice, and below is the grand bay or gulf (for I know not what other name to give it) , thickly covered with forest. The point of view is situated as if at the head of a bay, the line of cliff diverging on each side, and shewing headland behind headland, as on a bold sea coast. These cliffs are composed of horizontal strata of whitish sandstone ”

“ Every other important bed of coal and ironstone could have been laid down on its separate map, showing its extent, depth, thickness, richness, and the places where it had and where it had not been gotten.
Every one who has had anything to do with coal mining, even as a spectator, must be aware of the great waste of money, labour, and materials, consequent on the division of property among many small owners, each having different and opposite interests. ”

“ One often sees a mere straight line representing a fault on a geological map, and sometimes is tempted to wonder what becomes of it, or how any mass of beds can be elevated or depressed in consequence of a single crack running through them. That such single-lined fractures do occur, however, the beds on one side bending down, while those on the other have remained stationary, or are perhaps bulged upwards, is proved by the occurrence of the east and west faults, before described, traversing the South Staffordshire coal-field. ”

“ The other kind of rock fault arises from the contemporaneous deposition of sand or silt together with the coal, so that the formation of the two alternated at comparatively short intervals and over a comparatively small space, so that the whole coal incloses cakes, layers, or masses of sandstone of greater or less magnitude, and more or less intermingled with it. These masses may sometimes apparently be so large as over a certain part of the area to exclude the coal altogether, although they dove-tail into it, and are interlaced with it in interstratified layers round the margin of the area. ”