THE SOUTH-EASTERN COALFIELD, ITS 

 DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT 



By MALCOLM BURR, B.A. (Oxon.), F.G.S., F.L.S. 



I. Prophecy 



In the first Memoir of the Geological Survey (vol. i. p. 214) in 

 1846, de la Beche remarks : " From the movement of the older 

 rocks many a mass of Coal Measures may be buried beneath 

 the Oolites and Cretaceous Rocks on the east, the remains of a 

 great sheet of the accumulations connecting the districts we 

 have noticed, the Mendip Hills, with those of Central England 

 and Belgium, rolled about and partially denuded prior to the 

 deposit of the New Red Sandstone." 



This is the embryo of the idea which was developed by 

 Godwin-Austin in 1858, but not proved till 1890. 



It is true that in 1848, in a work entitled Winning and 

 Working Coal (p. 19), Dunn commented upon the physical 

 continuity of the chalk, which conceals the Coal Measures of 

 Belgium, with that of Dover, and, in his own words, this 

 " raised the very curious and important question as to whether 

 or not the carboniferous coalfields of Belgium exist under the 

 similar chalk formations in Britain " (quoted by Joseph Lucas, 

 Trans. Institut. Surv. vol. ii. Part 12, p. 475, 1908). But there is 

 no relation of cause and effect between the Chalk and the Coal 

 Measures, and Dunn's argument is scarcely more scientific than 

 the old prejudice of an ignorant public, which refused to admit 

 the possibility of coal existing beneath the Chalk. 



When de la Beche wrote, the Pas-de-Calais coalfield had not 

 been discovered ; but an artesian boring through this formation 

 at Oignies, on the borders of the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais, 

 started in 1841, ending in 1846 at a depth of about 1,312 ft., 

 had struck the Coal Measures at a depth of 495 ft. and passed 

 through several thin seams. 



Had Dunn been aware of this momentous discovery, he might 

 have laid greater emphasis on his argument, and he certainly 

 would have referred to it in his attempt to connect the hidden 



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