COAL UNDER LONDON.

Southland Times, Issue 1158, 3 November 1869, Page 3

COAL UNDER LONDON.

The prospect of coal at the pit's rnoutl close by London is sufficient to excite th< curiosity of all housekeepers of the metropolis, who pay their twenty or thirty shillings a ton, and know what coal is sold for in mining districts. It is, however, almost too bad to excite hopes which can never be realised in the present generation, nor probably for generatioue to come. Coal may underlie London at the depth of a mile or more, but it would be about as cheap to bring the fuel from New South Wales as to dig a couple of miles for it. There are some, however, who believe that the coal lies much nearer the surface, and the sinking of a deep well at Crossness is expected to prove the fact. The boring has already been carried as low as 1000 feet, at which depth neither water nor coal has been found. The gault has been reached, which is seldom of great thickness, and now the hope of finding water depends on reaching the lower greensaad, which, at a depth of 1800 feet, yields an abundant supply to Paris. Although, as we have recently had occasion to show from the report of the Royal Commission on "Water Supply, we hare abundance of water without ! sinking for it, it is very desirable in a scientific as well as practical point of I view, to have the question of the exist- ! ence of this lower greensand under London settled. For if there is no lower greensand, hopeful people expect to find coal at a not unworkable depth, and the discovery, we are told, would be of national importance. It is useless to discuss the probabilities of finding coal near London. "We have, in fact, little more than guesseß to calculate from. A boring at Kentish Town carried through the gault reached some kind of sandstone formation which might overlie the coal measures, as the new red sandstone does in Durham ; but it was never ascertained to which group of sandstone the one hit upon belonged, and the boring has not been continued. We may reasonably expect, however, that the Metropolitan Board of Works, supported by the opinion of Mr Prestwich, will go on with the boring at Crossness, and settle the question which tantalises all Londoners. They might make a worse use of the funds at their command. — Globe.