58 Geological Society. 



sits. To the termination of this work I look with pleasure in the en- 

 suing summer. 



If we turn from these hitherto neglected western regions and 

 transport ourselves to the eastern shores, who does not perceive that 

 we are there without any complete history of the crag and younger 

 deposits } The works of Mr. R. C.Taylor and others, though excellent 

 in their respective districts, are not of general application j and inge- 

 nious as are the views of Professor Lyell, they are only drawn from 

 those parts of the coast which have fallen under his own observation. 



Let me, therefore, en treat you to wipe away this imperfection from 

 our system, and to endeavour to establish demarcations as clear as 

 our fellow-labourers in France have done for the deposits of this 

 age, by working out the whole extent of the crag, and the precise na- 

 ture of its upper limits : also by showing the relative ages of gravel 

 beds with existing species of shells, and the numerous lacustrine and 

 terrestrial accumulations which abound along our east coast, from 

 the north bank of the Humber to the mouth of the Thames. 



The most essential, however, of all our scientific wants is a perfect 

 history of the coal-fields j for, connected as these are with the ex- 

 istence of England as a manufacturing nation, the call for information 

 upon this point cannot be too frequently repeated, nor its importance 

 too warmly inculcated. 



Some addition to our knowledge of carboniferous tracts has re- 

 cently been made by that excellent geologist Mr. J. Phillips, in a 

 short Memoir upon the Ganister, or Lower Coal-field of Yorkshire, 

 a full account of which will shortly appear in the Second Volume on 

 the Geology of that county *. 



I hope soon to lay before you a succinct view of those un de- 

 scribed and thin fields of coal in Shropshire, which have been accu- 

 mulated in ancient bays, covering the edges of the grauwacke forma- 

 tions, or resting upon the old red sandstone and mountain limestone. 

 As these fields are carried under the great trough of northern 

 Salop and Cheshire, may we not reasonably infer, that at some future 

 day a vast emporium of deeply seated coal may be discovered and 

 worked beneath the new red sandstone of that district } 



But to how many other parts of this island may we not apply simi- 

 lar speculations ? How many and how vast are these carboniferous 

 fields, with the true details of which we are entirely unacquainted ? 



If, Gentlemen, I specially invoke your continued exertions in this 

 department, it should be borne in mind that the results must essen- 

 tially benefit our fellow-creatures j and I am therefore confident that the 

 time is come, when, duly estimating our labours, the whole country 

 will proclaim, that u Geology is a pursuit of the deepest national im- 

 portance" With this feeling it is that our lists are already adorned 

 with some of the most honoured names in the land j and the only 



* I am informed that Mr. E. Hall, of Manchester, has made an addition 

 to our local carboniferous geology, by the completion of a MS. map of South 

 Lancashire coal tract. 



