at Pounceford, in Sussex. 



605 



4. ' Sand rock ' varies in Jiardness. Lignite and carbonised 



vegetables are found in this bed, in sufficient 

 Quantities to be collected and used for fir- 

 ing, by the workmen. It burns remarkably 

 well, they informed me, as coal* 



5. ' Top Crat ' a mixture of clay, grit, and ironsand, varying 



in hardness - 



6. ' Irony Crat* grit, with shells, remarkably hard 



7. ' Pavour ' - well described by quarrymen as ■ like a pin- 



cushion, all full of holes, as if eaten by 

 worms.' - - 



8. * Stony bed-1 sandy shales, of different degrees of hardness, 

 stone ' J A thin layer of marl between this and the 



one which follows - 



9. ■ Top vein' - calciferous grit - - - - 

 10. 'Meallies' - (as its name implies), very easily rubbed to 



pieces — affording, like * True bole,' very 

 good lime, but not worked 

 11.' Middle vein ' very hard grit, containing thin seams of coal 



12. 'Fox' - a clayey sand, with shells in abundance; af- 



fording good lime. Top and bottom coated 

 with shelly shale - 



13. 'Bottom vein ' gritty limestone; affording, however, very in- 



different lime. Between it and following 



bed, a vein of marl - 



14. 'Rotten stone' near bottom vein, marly. Adjoining ' grey 



vein,' compact sand - - 



15. ' Grey vein ' varies : in places, crumbling sand ; in others, 



hard grit - 



ft. in. 



7 6 



10 

 



1 



11 



2 9 



1 11 



4 



* Herschel has cited, as an example of the value of physical knowledge 

 in teaching us to avoid attempting impossibilities, an instance in which 

 ignorance of the first principles of geology led to a most expensive and 

 fruitless undertaking, in part of the country occupied by the ancient delta 

 of the Wealden ; an undertaking set on foot from the great quantities of 

 lignite and carbonised vegetables found in the different varieties of sand rock 

 in the Hastings sands, which induced several persons to form most san- 

 guine expectations of discovering coal beds. This attempt is thus noticed 

 by Herschel : — "It is not many years since an attempt was made to es- 

 tablish a colliery at Bexhill, in Sussex ; the appearance of thin seams 

 and sheets of fossil wood and wood coal, with some other indications si- 

 milar to what occur in the neighbourhood of the great coal beds in the 

 North of England, having led to the sinking of a shaft, and the erection of 

 machinery on a scale of vast expense. Not less than eight hundred thou- 

 sand pounds are said to have been laid out in this project, which, it is almost 

 needless to add, proved completely abortive, as every geologist would at 

 once have declared it must : the whole assemblage of geological facts being 

 adverse to the existence of a regular coal bed in the Hastings strata ; while this, 

 on which Bexhill is situated, is separated from the coal measures by a series 

 of interposed beds, of such enormous thickness as to render all idea of 

 penetrating through them absurd. The history of mining operations is full 

 of similar cases, where a very moderate acquaintance with the usual order 

 ofnature y to say nothing of theoretical views, would have saved many a 

 sanguine adventurer from utter ruin." (Sir John Herschel's Discourse on 

 the Study of Natural Philosophy.") 



u u 3 



