# A Description of the Several Strata of Earth, Stone, Coal, etc. Found in a Coal-Pit at the West End of Dudley in Straffordshire: By Mr. Fettiplace Bellers, F. R. S. To Which is Added, a Table of the Specifick Gravity of Each Stratum: By Mr Fr. Hauksbee, F. R. S. Communicated by Dr. Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr.

**Author(s):** Hans Sloane, Fr. Hauksbee, Fettiplace Bellers  
**Year:** 1710  
**Journal:** Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775)  
**Volume:** 27  
**Pages:** 5 pages  
**Identifier:** jstor-103172  
**JSTOR URL:** <https://www.jstor.org/stable/103172>  

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XI. A Description of the several Strata of Earth, Stone, Coal, &c. found in a Coal-Pit at the West End of Dudley in Staffordshire: By Mr. Fettiplace Bellers, F. R. S. To which is added, a Table of the Specifick Gravity of each Stratum: By Mr Fr. Hauksbee, F. R. S. Communicated by Dr. Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr.

I. A Yellowish Clay, which lies immediately under the Turf.

II. A Blewish Clay.

III. A Blewish hard Clay; the Miners call it Clunch. This is one of the certain Signs of Coal. It has in it Mineral Plants.

IV. A Blewish soft Clay.

V. A fine-grained Gray Stone: It lies next the former, and is found in some Pits only.

VI. A Clay almost like the First, only whiter.

VII. A hard Gray Rock; with something like the Impressions of Vegetables, but none distinct.

VIII. A Blew Clunch, like Numb. 3. with Mineral Plants in it.

VIII. +. This Stratum (which is the same with Numb. 13.) was not taken.

IX. Coal, called Bench-Coal.

X. Coal, less black and shining than the former, called Slipper-Coal.

XI. Coal, more black and shining, called Spin-Coal.

XII. A Coal like Cannal-Coal, by the Miners called Stone Coal. These Strata of Coal have between each
of them a Bat, of about the thickness of a Crown Piece.

XIII. A black Substance, called the Dun-Row-Bat.

XIV. A hard grey Iron Oar, called the Dun-Row Iron-Stone.

XV. A blewish Bat, in which the following Iron-Stone lyes, called the White-Row.

XVI. A hard blackish Iron Oar, lying in small Nodules, having between them a white Substance; and from thence by the Miners called the White-Row-Grains, or Iron Stone.

XVII. A hard grey Iron Oar, with some white spots in it, called the Mid-row Grains.

XVIII. A black fissile Substance, called the Gublin-Bat.

XIX. A hard blackish Iron Oar, with white spots in it, called the Gublin Iron-Stone.

XX. A Bat, in Substance much like that of Numb. XVIII.

XXI. A hard grey Iron Oar, called the Cannoc, or Cannot-Iron-Stone.

XXII. A Bat, somewhat harder than Numb. XX.

XXIII. A dark, gray, hard Iron Oar, called the Rubble Iron-Stone.

XXIV. The Table-Bat, next under the Rubble Iron-Stone.

XXV. A coarse sort of Coal, called the Foot-Coal.

XXVI. A black, brittle, shining Bat.

XXVII. The Heathen-Coal.

XXVIII. A Substance like a coarse Coal, but by the Miners called a Bat; perhaps because it does not burn well.

XXIX. The Bench-Coal.

XXX.
XXX. A Bat under the last, and is as low (viz. 188½ Feet) as they generally dig, tho' there is a coarse Coal under this.

N.B. Those Substances, which divide the Strata of Coals and Iron Oars from each other, are called Bats by the Miners: They are generally black, consisting of a Matter peculiar to themselves, and are of a Texture nearest like Marle; tho' some of them are fissile, and others have a Substance not unlike Coal mixt with them.

A Table of the Thickness of each Stratum, and its Proportion to Water, or Specifick Gravity.

| Number of the Strata | Thickness of each Stratum. Feet. Inches | Proportion to Water, | Or Specifick Gravity. |
|----------------------|----------------------------------------|---------------------|-----------------------|
| I.                   | 4 0                                    | as 385 to 192        | as 200 to 100         |
| II.                  | 5 0                                    | 296 168              | 176                   |
| III.                 | 24 0                                   | 23 9                 | 256                   |
| IV.                  | 9 0                                    | 209 106              | 197                   |
| V.                   | 4 0                                    | 583 237              | 246                   |
| VI.                  | 21 0                                   | 401 192              | 209                   |
| VII.                 | 75 0                                   | 683 259              | 243                   |
| VIII.                | 5 0                                    | 223 88               | 253                   |
| VIII+.               | 1 0                                    | —                    | —                     |
| IX.                  | 3 0                                    | 7 5                  | 140                   |
| X.                   | 3 0                                    | 106 72               | 147                   |
| XI.                  | 4 0                                    | 147 114              | 129                   |
| XII.                 | 4 0                                    | 185 143              | 130                   |
| XIII.                | 1 0                                    | 408 198              | 206                   |
| XIV.                 | 0 1                                    | 204 67               | 303                   |
| XV.                  | 0 3                                    | 183 72               | 254                   |
| XVI.                 | 1 3                                    | 325 232              | 334                   |
| XVII.                | 0 2                                    | 781 244              | 320                   |
| Number of the Strata | Thickness of each Stratum. Feet. Inches | Proportion to Water, as 305 to 129 | Or Specifick Gravity, as 236 to 109 |
|----------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
| XVIII.               | 2 0                                    |                                  |                                   |
| XIX.                 | 0 9                                    | 920 266                          | 346                               |
| XX.                  | 1 6                                    | 192 76                           | 253                               |
| XXI.                 | 0 6                                    | 675 216½                         | 313                               |
| XXII.                | 1 0                                    | 428 165                          | 290                               |
| XXIII.               | 0 6                                    | 828 231                          | 358                               |
| XXIV.                | 2 0                                    | 333 153                          | 218                               |
| XXV.                 | 1 0                                    | 198 154                          | 128                               |
| XXVI.                | 6 0                                    | 238 141                          | 169                               |
| XXVII.               | 6 0                                    | 298 236½                         | 126                               |
| XXVIII.              | 0 1                                    | 267 186                          | 144                               |
| XXIX.                | 2 0                                    | 314 240                          | 131                               |
| XXX.                 | 0 6                                    | 244 133                          | 183                               |

By which it is evident, that the Gravities of the several Strata are in no manner of Order; but purely casual, as if mixt by chance.