1858] Mr. Godwin- Austen, on Coal 511 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, April 16. 



The Duke of Northumberland, K.G. F.R.S. President, 

 in the Chair. 



Robert Godwin-Austen, Esq. F.R.S. & G.S. 



On the Conditions which determine the prohahility of Coal beneath 

 the South-Eastern parts of England. 



Fossil fuel may be of any geological age : seams and traces of it 

 have often encouraged researches amongst the tertiary strata of the 

 London basin : even within the last few years there has been a 

 Woking Heath coal-mining adventure ; and it has long been a 

 matter of popular belief that Blackheath is to supply London with 

 coal. There are, however, thick accumulations of tertiary fuel, of 

 which Bovey, in South Devon, is the best example in this country. 

 There is coal belonging to the period of the chalk — there have 

 been innumerable trials for coal amongst the fresh-water formations 

 of the Weald of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex — there is tolerable coal 

 associated with the oolitic series of Yorkshire; but the coal to 

 which the following speculations refer is that which is derived 

 from what have been designated the " true coal measures." 



The period to which this coal belongs in the earth's history is 

 of very great antiquity ; but the usual way of representing its age 

 by reference to a vertical scale of geological formations, is inappli- 

 cable in the present case ; and the only way in which it can be 

 stated is this, that the whole series of formations which may be 

 seen in the cliffs of the south coast of England, from Torbay to 

 the Isle of Wight, have been accumulated since the period of the 

 " true coal " series. 



The superficial extent of the carboniferous series in this country 

 is very great : allowing for what has been denuded, and what we 

 know is covered up,, it may be described as extending in a broad 

 band from Berwick diagonally across the whole island into South 

 Wales, and thence across the county of Devon. 



The usual subdivision of the great carboniferous series into a 

 descending series of " coal measures," " mountain limestone,*' and 

 red sandstone, is geographical ; the area of sandstone with coal 

 plants is western ; that of the limestone is central ; and true coal 

 measures occur unconnected with either. The carboniferous form- 



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