384 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



1843. Coal discovered by chance at Oignies. 



1847. Two seams discovered by boring at Escarpelle. 



1 85 1. Output of 4,672 tons at Courrieres. 



1855. Numerous borings proved continuation of the basin 

 from Douai to Flechinelle, a distance of 65 km.» 

 or about 40 miles. 



By the end of 1855, nine concessions had been granted, 

 comprising a total area of 36,624 hectares, equal to about 

 90,000 acres. Coal was placed on the market as early as 185 1, 

 and in 1862 the output from this recently discovered coalfield 

 was over a million tons. When the coalfield had been dis- 

 covered as long as ours has, the annual output had almost 

 attained the figure of a million and a half. A pit begun on 

 April 1, 1851, put out coal in 1855. 



The Coal Measures are reached at a depth of about 500 ft. 

 The overburden consists entirely of Cretaceous rocks, but it 

 was of course often necessary to penetrate to a greater depth 

 in order to attain a workable seam. 



In England progress has been snail-like : hampered by an 

 ignorant and an obstinate public, the struggles for success have 

 been carried on against overwhelming difficulties, and though 

 Kentish Coal has not yet been placed on the market, the day 

 is now very near at hand when we shall see coal being sold 

 at the pit's mouth in the downs of East Kent, nearly twenty 

 years after the first striking of coal. 



Six years were allowed to pass before any steps were taken 

 to profit by the discovery. In 1896 a private syndicate began 

 the pit at Shakespear's Cliff: handicapped by a great thickness 

 of water-bearing Greensand and Hastings Sands, subject to 

 infiltration of marine water through the porous Folkestone 

 Beds, in a site cramped for want of space, where there can 

 never be room to handle a large output, the first attempt at 

 a colliery has eked out a precarious existence for twelve years, 

 and to-day seems as far as ever from attaining its objects. 



The authorities were so preoccupied by their works on the 

 foreshore that they neglected to explore inland. Other com- 

 panies carried out borings at Hothfield, Old Soar, Ottinge, 

 Pluckley, Penshurst, Brabourne, Ropersole, and Ellinge. This 

 first batch of explorations was hampered by want of funds; 

 the boring at Old Soar never passed out of the Weald Clay 

 (467 ft.) ; Ottinge only showed 367 ft. of Lower Greensand ; 



