It may be interesting to contemplate a few facts and figures in connexion with that trade which forms the principal occupation of Blyth and its neighbouring ports. From the evidence of an experienced coal-engineer,[7] given a few years since before a Parliamentary Committee, we learn, "that the number of persons employed under-ground on the Tyne are--men, 4,937; boys, 3,554; together, 8,491: above-ground--men, 2,745; boys, 718; making 3,463: making the total employed in the mines above and below ground, 11,954, which in round numbers I call 12,000, because I am pretty sure there were some omissions in the returns. On the river Wear, I conceive there are 9,000 employed; making 21,000 employed in digging the coal, and delivering it to the ships on the two rivers. From the best calculations I have been able to make, it would appear that, averaging the coasting-vessels that carry coals at the size of 220 London chaldrons each vessel, there would be 1,400 vessels employed, which would require 15,000 seamen and boys. I have made a summary. There are, seamen, 15,000; pitmen and above-ground people employed at the collieries, 21,000; keel-men, coal-boatmen, casters, and trimmers, 2,000: making the total number employed in what I call the Northern Coal Trade, 38,000. In London, whippers, lightermen, and so forth, 5,000; factors, agents, &c., on the Coal Exchange, 2,500;-7,500 in all, in London. Making the grand total in the North country and London departments of the trade, 45,500. This does not, of course, include the persons employed at the outports in discharging the ships there." [7] Mr. Buddle, of Wallsend, whose statistics of the coal-trade have been quoted by McCulloch and other writers on the subject. [Illustration: TYNEMOUTH CASTLE. _VESSEL WRECKED ON THE ROCKS._] TYNEMOUTH. VESSEL ON THE ROCKS. The engraving presents a view of a vessel on the rocks, at the foot of the cliff, to the north-east of Tynemouth castle, as seen from the Ox-fall, in coming from Cullercoat Sands. On the top of the cliff is the lighthouse; in the foreground are various indications of a wreck; towards the middle of the engraving is the vessel "high and dry" upon the rocks; and in the distance, on the left hand, is seen Souter Point, in the county of Durham, about four miles distant from Tynemouth. The village of Tynemouth, which gives name to an extensive and populous parish, is situated near the mouth of the river Tyne, at the southern extremity of the county of Northumberland. It is a short mile distant from North Shields, about nine miles to the eastward of Newcastle, and two hundred and seventy-six from London. It consists chiefly of one wide street, which runs nearly east and west, with one or two smaller streets to the northward, nearly in the same direction.