IV.—On the Carboniferous Deposit of the Brown Clee Hill and its Relation to Contiguous Coal-fields

Extract

The Coal-measures of the Brown Clee are of themselves extremely insignificant and unimportant. The total area is limited, and the thickness of the coals would not have entitled them to be considered of commercial value, if it were not for the fact, that from its elevated position it is placed well above the reach of water, and hence the great difficulties which beset early mining operations in freeing the mines from water did not affect the coal-mines of the Brown Clee; consequently, in those times they were worked to advantage, but there is very little coal remaining to be won. They have, however, a value to the geologist, as indicative of the much wider range of the Coalbrookdale Coal-measures than is shown by its present boundary, for there is an unmistakable analogy between both deposits, to which, we shall presently refer.