Note 13 — Chapter III

During 1866 the coal produce of the various districts of the kingdom was as follows:—Durham and Northumberland, 25,194,550 tons; Cumberland, 1,490,481 tons; Yorkshire, 9,714,700 tons; Derbyshire, 4,750,520 tons; Nottinghamshire, 1,600,560 tons; Leicestershire, 866,560 tons; Warwickshire, 775,000 tons; Staffordshire and Worcestershire, 12,298,580 tons; Lancashire, 12,320,500 tons; Cheshire, 895,500 tons; Shropshire, 1,220,700 tons; Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, 1,850,700 tons; Monmouthshire, 4,445,000 tons; South Wales, 9,376,443 tons; North Wales, 2,082,000 tons; Scotland, 12,625,000 tons; and Ireland, 123,750 tons; making the total 101,630,544 tons above stated. It will be gathered from that statement that Durham and Northumberland have furnished one-fourth of the total yield of the kingdom. It is said that the coal-fields of these counties are gradually lessening; no doubt they are, although it will be probably three centuries before coal production there will cease to be profitable. But on the other hand, it is but a few years since the coal trade of South Wales assumed important proportions; still later, those of the Forest of Dean and of South Yorkshire. The coal-fields of Derbyshire are of vast extent, and extraction from them bears no proportion to what it can be in three or four years, owing to the opening of new and extensive collieries, especially in the Southern part of the county. Leicestershire also abounds in very good coal, the yield of which can, and no doubt will, be rapidly stimulated by means of the Midland Railway. We are surprised to see it figured for so small an amount in the above statement.