THE LIBRARY TABLE. 24I 



neglect of superficial beds of every kind. For, on a coal field, for example, the 

 outcrops of the rocks of Carboniferous age, with the lines of fault crossing 

 them, are the fundamentally important things to be noted on the geological 

 map. To show, in addition, the superficial beds, would often be but to obscure 

 the most valuable information, as well as to retard the progress of the Survey. 

 And similar reasoning would apply more or less to formations directly under- 

 lying or overlying the Carboniferous series. The special needs of the miner 

 may be shown by the following illustration. In pre-geological days there was 

 a popular view in the Northumberland and Durham, and in the Yorkshire and 

 Derbyshire coalfields that there was " no coal under the limestone." This 

 was true of the Carboniferous Limestone on the west, but utterly untrue of 

 the Magnesian Limestone eastward. Other examples might be given, but the 

 supreme importance, in mining, of a knowledge of the geological structure of 

 a district hardly needs further illustration. 



On the other hand, a knowledge of the geological structure of a country 

 has not the same importance to the farmer. Let us, for example, again take 

 two limestones, each of which occupies a considerable proportion of the 

 surface of England, the Carboniferous Limestone and the Chalk. We learn 

 from Mr. McConnell that the grass growing on the bare Carboniferous (or 

 Mountain) Limestone is exceptionally sweet and nutritious, fattening sheep in 

 ■ a few months. The grass growing on the bare Chalk is also excellent for 

 sheep, as we all know from the reputation of the South Down breed. But it 

 would be obvious to any farmer that in each case the sheep fed on grass 

 growing on bare limestone, and he would need no knowledge of the 

 geological structure of the respective districts or the comparative ages of the 

 limestones. 



But though, regarding England as a whole, the claims of the miners for 

 geological information are manifestly greater and more fundamental than 

 those of the agriculturists, the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have 

 unquestionably been under a special disadvantage in the postponement of 

 drift maps till the claims of the miners were satisfied. This becomes obvious 

 when drift maps and non-drift maps are compared with each other. A drift 

 map of Kent, when compared with a non-drift map, seems but to possess 

 some additional details. Drift maps of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, compared 

 with non-drift maps of those counties, look like maps of districts of utterly 

 different geological composition. 



As regards the formations of Essex and their farming qualities, nothing is 

 said by Mr. McConnell of Chalk in connection with that county, though its 

 capabilities as seen elsewhere are noted. Chalk, however, occupies but a 

 very small proportion of the surface of Essex, being found only in the north- 

 west corner and between Purfleet and East Tilbury. And the lowest Tertiary 

 beds, the Thanet Sand and the Woolwich Series, occupy but very narrow 

 strips of country adjacent to those where the Chalk is seen. The next, in 

 ascending order, the Oldhaven Beds, cover but an insignificant area in Essex ; 

 but we learn that at Hassenbrook Farm, near Stanford-le-Hope, a small, 

 thin patch of this formation occurs, largely composed of rolled flint pebbles in 

 sand ; and that it is the best strawberry land in the district. The London Clay, 

 which comes next, forms a very large proportion of the surface in southern 

 and eastern Essex.- .As regards its character as a soil, it is described as being 



