Wigan Album

The left-hand pic we've seen already - now as published in the French book, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6364932w
Its caption reads 'Group of female sorters dressed in their working clothes )Wigan pits, England)'. The other caption reads 'A typical female sorter with her shovel and riddle'. She's obviously the same girl seen seated in the other pic.
In the book's text, the clothing is described in detail - so I think it's its strangeness, to the French, which led them to feature these lasses so much in the chapter.