130 THE QUESTION OF WORKABLE 



course of a year or two may lead to the secession of a considerable 

 number of members, and consequently to a serious diminution of 

 income. New accessions may possibly revive it, but a museum must 

 cost as much in adveisity as in prosperity, or be got rid of entirely. 

 A thinner volume of Transactions may be published and money 

 saved in that way, but such savings are a very common cause of 

 renewed secessions, the publication of Transactions being a primary 

 object of the society and the establishment of a museum a secondary 

 one — if that. And in its most prosperous times the income of a 

 local society consists of an amount which leaves it no surplus after 

 the expenses of its evening meetings and excursions have been met, 

 and its Transactions have been issued in a creditable form. For the 

 numbers of persons in any district who become members of 

 Naturalists' Societies is very limited, and varies largely with the 

 amount of subscription required, as may be learned from a glance at 

 the list of the Corresponding Societies of the British Association. 



In short, while the fact that a local society usually comprises 

 almost all the local collectors makes it the best possible body for the 

 formation of a museum, its small income, which is necessarily devoted 

 almost entirely to other objects, makes it utterly incompetent to 

 maintain one. It is, therefore, most gratifying to learn that the 

 County Council of Dorset has given giants directly to three local 

 museums on the simple condition that they should be open to the 

 public free on one day in the week, and that the Government 

 auditor has apparently not objected to this grant. 



T. V. Holmes. 



THE QUESTION OF WORKABLE COAL 

 MEASURES BENEATH ESSEX.' 



By the Rev. A. IRVING, D.Sc, F.G.S., Vicay of Hockcrill. 



IN dealing with this question, a few preliminary and general con- 

 siderations may perhaps be necessary, in order that a fairly 

 clear idea may be gained of the place of the Coal Measures in 

 the geological history of this globe by other than students of geology. 

 While this earth was yet young, but had so far cooled down from 

 the conditions of a glowing star that the greater part of the aqueous 

 vapour of its primordial atmosphere had been condensed upon the 



I This article is reprinted from the " Herts and Essex Observer, "of July i4lh, 1854, by the 

 kind permission of Messrs. Mardon Bros., the proprietors, and Dr. Irving.— Ed. 



