[5] So far back as 1789, John Williams, in his _Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom_, discussed the question of the ‘Limited Quantity of Coal in Great Britain.’ The following extracts are taken from an excellent paper on the exhaustion of our coal in the _Popular Science Review_ for July 1866, by Mr. Lemoran, Colliery Viewer. ‘I have no doubt,’ says Williams, ‘that the generality of the inhabitants of Great Britain believe that our coal mines are inexhaustible; and the general conduct of the nation, so far as relates to this subject, seems to imply that this is held as an established fact. If it was not a generally received opinion, would the rage for exporting coals be allowed to go on without limitation or remorse? But it is full time that the public were undeceived in a matter which so nearly concerns the welfare of this flourishing island.... When our coal mines are exhausted, the prosperity and glory of this flourishing and fortunate island are at an end. Our cities and great towns must then become ruinous heaps for want of fuel, and our mines and manufactories must fail from the same cause, and then, consequently, our commerce must vanish. In short, the commerce, wealth, importance, glory, and happiness of Great Britain will decay and gradually dwindle away to nothing, in proportion as our coal and other mines fail.’ Mr. Williams also solves in a very summary manner the problem of England’s fate after her coal stores shall be exhausted. ‘The future inhabitants of this island must live,’ says he, ‘like its first inhabitants, by fishing and hunting.’ [6] In 1854, the yield was 64,661,401 tons; in 1864, the yield was 92,787,873: the average increase per annum was, therefore, no less than 2,812,647 tons. [7] I have obtained a somewhat different result from a computation I have just gone through. I make the consumption 291 millions in 1900, and 1,446 millions in 1950. Mr. Lemoran seems to have taken the percentage at 3½ instead of 3¼. It is worth noticing how seriously a small change in the percentage affects the result; the consumption in 1950 becoming 1,760 millions of tons, instead of 1,446 millions. [8] The year 1863 was the last whose statistics were available for Mr. Jevons’s purpose; and estimating from either 1860 or 1862 would give a result smaller than either of the above. Indeed, the consumption was less in 1862 than in 1861. _IS THE GULF STREAM A MYTH?_