Discovery of Coal at Billesdon in Leicestershire. 1 1 3 



which, after all, are so loosely described, that it seems very pro- 

 bable that they may be nothing more than fragments of fossil 

 wood, known to be very common in the lias formation, instead 

 of true coal. In like manner the fossil vegetable remains men- 

 tioned by him, are described only under the old and vague 

 name of Carpolithes, without any indication which can enable 

 us to judge whether they belong to the species usually asso- 

 ciated with the regular coal-measures or not. The notice is 

 also destitute of every thing like a general account of the geo- 

 logical relations of the district; and it is hastily assumed that 

 scientific geologists would previously have pronounced against 

 the possibility of the occurrence of any coal in that neigh- 

 bourhood ; although the slightest acquaintance with any stand- 

 ard work on geology would have informed Mr. Holdsworth, 

 that, besides the principal carboniferous formation, others are 

 recognised, especially that connected with the sands of the 

 inferior oolite, in the eastern moorlands of Yorkshire, and at 

 Brora in Scotland. Now it so happens that these very sands 

 of the inferior oolite, assuming a character very similar to their 

 type in Yorkshire, range from Bel voir along the eastern 

 portion of Leicestershire, and skirt on Billesdon itself. It 

 seems, therefore, by no means improbable that if Mr. Holds- 

 worth has really found any coal, it may belong to this forma- 

 tion ; but his description does not at all state whether the site 

 of his discovery be in these sands, or in the subjacent lias. 



When also the general geological structure of Leicester- 

 shire is considered, no scientific geologist, assuredly, would 

 have ventured to pronounce it highly improbable that, by 

 piercing the lias itself, the great carboniferous measures might 

 have been reached in the neighbourhood of Billesdon ; since 

 in no very distant portion of the same county, we see the 

 older transition rocks of Mount Sorrel bursting forth in im- 

 mediate proximity to the lias of Barrow-on-Soar. In like 

 manner it is easy to suppose that some great undulation of 

 the inferior strata may throw up the great coal-measures be- 

 neath the lias at Billesdon. Under very similar circumstances 

 coal is found throughout the great coal-field of Somersetshire : 

 at Newton near Bath, for instance, it is largely worked in the 

 very midst of a lias district; but whether any similar circum- 

 stances exist near Billesdon, we are left in total ignorance. 



These are the points which require to be examined into, 

 in order to give the experiment now conducting at Billesdon 

 the slightest probability of success; without such investigation, 

 it can only end in disappointment and loss. 



I remain, Gentlemen, your constant reader, 



W. D. CoNYBEARE. 



TJiird Series. Vol. 3. No. 14. Aug. 1833. Q 



