THE UNITED KINGDOM: COAL—IRON. 65

The South Wales Coalfield has an area of 1,000 square miles, and annually
produces upwards of =3 million tons of coal and anthracite. One-third of the
entire British export of coal is shipped from CARDIFF, the chief outlet of the
great mining and metal centres of MERTHYR TYDVIL, ABERDARE, Dow-
uArs, PONTYPRIDD, &c., and from SWANSEA (the outlet for the western divi-
sion of this rich coalfield), which also has important industries—c0pper-smelt-
mg works, &c.—of its own.

The Bristol Coalfield is small, and the deposits are difficult to work. There

is also a small coalfield in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, and isolated
mines are worked in other parts of England.

The Scottish Coalfields have a total production of about 27

million tons a year.

The mines of Lanark and Ayrshire supply the ironworks of HAMILTON,
AIRDRIE, BATHGATE, FALKIRK, MOTHERWELL, and COATBRIDGE, and the
great shipbuilding and engineering establishments of GLASGOW and
GREENOCK, the cotton and thread factories of PAISLEY, and the woollen and
carpet factories and iron-foundries of KILMARNOCK. The mines of the Lothians
supply EDINBURGH and LEITH, while those of Fife and Forfar sustain the
linen and jute manufacture of DUNDEE, DUNFERMLINE, and other manu-

facturing towns on the east coast.

The Irish Coalfields are much inferior in extent and amount of
production to those of Great Britain.

The only important mines are those of KILKENNY, TIPPERARY, and TYRONE ;
but Irish coal is of inferior quality, and the total output scarcely exceeds xoo,ooo
tons a year. Hull, in his " Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland," says
that the coal measures once overspread all the area now occupied by carboni-
ferous limestone, that is, all the central limestone plain of Ireland, and that
then the surface of the Irish area remained in a state of dry land, while that of
England was submerged beneath the waters of the sea. Little by little the
carboniferous strata were swept by sub-aerial waters into the adjoining ocean,
" to form, perhaps, some of the strata which were being piled up over the ocean-
bed of the British area. At this time Ireland contributed to the future mineral
wealth of England ; she stript herself to clothe her sister, and to supply
materials for protecting from atmospheric waste her vast stores of coal, upon
which her greatness and prosperity now so largely depend."

“Of the upper carboniferous beds," states another writer. “ which, at one
time, overspread the central plain of Ireland, only small patches remain in
isolated spots, serving chiefly as an indication of the immense loss that has been
sustained in an important element of material prosperity."

IRON.-—Ir0n-ore, by far the most valuable of all metallic ores,
occurs abundantly within and near the coal areas of England and
\/Vales and southern Scotland, and there are also rich deposits of
this ore in Ireland.

In Ireland not only are the few coal mines situated at a considerable distance
from the coast, but also from the iron-ore districts. In Great Britain, on the
contrary, practically inexhaustible deposits of iron-ore are found not only within
or close to the coal areas, but often in the same mines, and it is this abundance
and juxtaposition of the iron-ore and of the coal to smelt it, that has given Great