eginning of the present century to
1875 the output has been more than doubled for each successive quarter
century. The actual amount of coal raised in the United Kingdom between
1882 and the present time averages annually about 170 million tons,
corresponding in money value to about L45,000,000 per annum. In 1860 the
amount of coal raised in Great Britain was a little more than 80 million
tons, and Professor Hull estimated that at that rate of consumption our
supplies of workable coal would hold out for a thousand years. Since then
the available stock has been diminished by some 3,650 million tons, and
even this deduction, we are told on the same authority, has not materially
affected our total supply. The possibility of a coal famine need,
therefore, cause no immediate anxiety; but we cannot "eat our loaf and
have it too," and sooner or later the continuous drain upon our coal
resources must make itself felt. The first effect will probably be an
increase in price owing to the greater depth at which the coal will have
to be worked. The whole question of our coal supply has, however,
recently assumed a new aspect by the discovery (February 1890) of coal at
a depth of 1,160 feet at Dover. To quote the words of Mr. W. Whitaker--"It
may be indeed that the coal supply of the future will be largely derived
from the South-East of England, and some day it may happen, from the
exhaustion of our northern coal-fields, that we in the south may be able
successfully to perform a task now proverbially unprofitable--_we may
carry coal to Newcastle_."

The coal-fields of Great Britain and Ireland occupy, in round numbers, an
area of 11,860 square miles, or about one-tenth of the whole area of the
land surface of the country. Within this area, and down to a depth of
4,000 feet, lie the main deposits of our available wealth. Some idea of
the amount of coal underlying this area will be gathered from the table[2]
on the next page.

This supply, amounting to over 90,000 million tons, refers to the exposed
coal-fields and to workable seams, _i.e._ those above one foot in
thickness. But in addition to this, we have a large amount of coal at
workable depths under formations of later geological age than the
Carboniferous, such as the Permian formation of northern and central
England. Adding the estimated quantity of coal from this source to that
contained in the exposed coal-fields as given above, we arrive at the
total available supply. This i