142 COAL UNDER SOUTH-EASTERN ENGLAND. 



smaller than ever ; and even the chance of the Dover measures 

 being found to extend beneath the Nore into the region of south- 

 eastern Essex is reduced by the absence of Jurassic strata in the 

 boring at Crossness (Kent), although there, as well as at Richmond 

 and Streatham, there is some uncertainty as to the age of ' red and 

 grey rocks,' which immediately underlie the secondary series." 



COAL UNDER SOUTH-EASTERN ENGLAND. 



Reports by T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., and W. Whitaker, F.R.S. 



nPHE possibility of finding workable seams of coal under Essex 

 has, from its vast commercial importance, naturally attracted 

 great attention in our county since the hypothesis was first 

 started by the late Mr. Godwin-Austen in 1855 in a paper read 

 before the Geological Society, "On the Possible Extension of the 

 Coal-Measures beneath the South-Eastern Part of England" 

 ("Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society," vol. xii., page 38). 

 As there is now a certainty that the search will be undertaken in 

 earnest it will be useful to present the gist of the reports of Mr. 

 T. V. Holmes, Mr. W. Whitaker, and Dr. Taylor, prepared for the 

 "Eastern Counties Coal-Boring Association," for permission to repro- 

 duce which we are indebted to the secretary, Mr. G. F. Mansell, 

 who was the first to take the matter up practically, and who has 

 since June, 1891, worked in the most energetic and business-like 

 way to bring this question to a practical trial. We must also call 

 attention to the. important paper by Dr. Irving, who expresses 

 views of his own, printed in the present number. 



The problem was first brought under the notice of our readers 

 by Mr. T. V. Holmes, in his paper on "The Subterranean 

 Geology of South-Eastern England," being his Presidential Address 

 at the meeting of the Club on January 28th, 1888, and which was 

 given in full, with illustrative diagrams, in The Essex Naturalist 

 (vol. ii., pp. 138-158). To this valuable paper the reader should 

 refer for a discussion of the hypothesis put forward by Mr. 

 Godwin-Austen. 



At the time Mr. Holmes's paper was written it was very doubtful 

 whether any experimental borings in S. E. England would ever 

 be made. But, since 1888, the Directors of the Channel Tunnel 

 Company have made a boring at Dover reaching the Coal-Measures 



