514 Mr, Godwin- A usten^ on the probability of Coal [April 16, 



Odenwald, and the Spessart, and a great tract extending north and 

 east, whence came down that curious assemblage of terrestrial 

 forms which has been met with in the great fluviatile and lacustrine 

 deposits of the Saarbruch coal basin. Such is the form of the 

 area which contains the great coal formations of western Europe. 



The island which is represented in the interior of that great 

 basin is not imaginary* — evidence of direction and extent of southern 

 coast line from shingle bed of Burnot. The extension of a band of 

 shingle from beyond Eupen to the Boulonnais, marks the direction 

 of an old coast line which lay to the north of it. It was from this 

 mass of land that the terrestrial vegetation, and the fresh- water 

 shells so abundant in the Liege coal measures, were derived. 



The whole area, as here described, may be compared, as to its 

 physical characters, with large level tracts which lie west of the 

 Blue Mountains in Australia, into which the Lachlan, the Darling, 

 the Murrumbidgee, and the Murray discharge. 



Between the close of the coal growths, and the period of the 

 formation which next succeeded, the surface of the whole of the 

 area which has been sketched out was disturbed and broken up. 

 Some of the lines, like that of our Pennine Chain, conform to those 

 masses of terrestrial surface which tended in that direction ; a7id 

 a very remarkable line is one which has a general east and west 

 direction across the European area. This line also conforms "to 

 the direction of old land which was to the north and south of it, 

 and comprises the whole of the interval between the coal growth 

 surfaces of the Saarbruch districts, and those of Belgium. 



The Section along the Meuse affords good illustrations of the 

 character of this band of disturbed strata ; in this section the upper 

 beds of the coal measures occupy the deep troughs ; the older parts 

 of the Palaeozoic series appear in the ridges. Such is the character 

 of the great Liege, Namur, Mons, Valenciennes coal band through- 

 out. 



The line which passes along the south of this coal band, was a 

 boundary line for the oolitic formations^ and for the earliest accu- 

 mulations of the cretaceous period^ — this is particularly well seen in 

 the Boulonnais. 



The question as to the probability of coal in this (south-east) 

 part of England, depends on the relation between the physical con- 

 figuration of the present surface as compared with this older surface. 

 The character of the axis or ridge of Artois, with its valleys of 

 elevation, was described as a continuation of the line of disturbance 

 along the south of the Mons coal band, in the east, and as coin- 

 ciding with the north escarpment of the Boulonnais on the west. 

 The Boulonnais is physically a portion of the great elliptical denu- 

 dation of Weald, of which the North Downs from Dover, west, are 



♦ The reference here made is to a map which represented the physical 

 features of Western Europe, at the period of the coal growth. 



