There are few subjects of more importance, and few less known or thought
about, than our coal-mines. Coal is one of our greatest blessings, and
certainly one originating cause of England's greatness and wealth. It
has given us a power over other nations, and vast sums of money are
yearly brought to our country from abroad in exchange for the coal we
send. Nearly £17,000,000 is the representative value of the coal raised
every year at the pit's mouth, and £20,000,000 represent its mean value
at the various places of consumption. The capital invested in our
coal-mining trade, apart from the value of the mines themselves,
exceeds £20,000,000 sterling, and the amount of coal annually extracted
from the earth is over 70,000,000 of tons. Taking the calculation of a
working miner--J. Ellwood, Moss Pit, near Whitehaven--we may state, that
if 68,000,000 tons were excavated from a mining gallery 6 feet high and
12 feet wide, that gallery would be not less than 5128 miles, 1090
yards, in length; or, if this amount of coal were erected in a pyramid,
its square base would extend over 40 acres, and the height would be 3356
feet.

There are grounds for believing that the produce of the various
coal-fields of the world does not at present much exceed 100,000,000 of
tons annually, and therefore our own country contributes more than
three-fifths of the total amount. If we divide the coal-yielding
counties of Britain into four classes, so as to make nearly equal
amounts of produce, we find that Durham and Northumberland yield rather
more every year than seven other counties, including Yorkshire.
Derbyshire, again, produces more than eight other counties, and nearly
as much as the whole of North and South Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland--the yield of the latter being about 17,000,000 of tons, and
that of the two first-named about 16,000,000 of tons.