rnOF. T. RirPERT JONES — ON COAL. 99 



(Dover), the Coal-measures have been found at a depth of 1,113 

 feet, and ten seams, varying from 12 to 33 inches in thickness, 

 wore pierced in the 817 feet further down (that is, to 1,9.'j0 feet), 

 in the suuuner of this year, further boring is expected to prove 

 other and thicker coals — either such as are known to occur in Frfmce, 

 13elgium, and Westphalia, or like the 55 seams of the Somerset 

 coalfield, giving 98 feet of workable coal in 8,400 feet of shales 

 and sandstones, etc. 



Of course the quantity (that is, extent in any direction) of pro- 

 ductive measures preserved in the folds of the old ridge now struck 

 beneath Dover cannot be known without further boring and real 

 mining by shafts and galleries ; and the direction of its dip or 

 slope, whether favourable or not for working it there, has to be 

 ascertained before the true value of the experiment is proved. 



Perhaps other trials will be made along the east-and-west folds 

 of the old ridge at or near the spots pointed out by Mr. "VYliitaker, 

 as likely for the purpose, in Kent, Herts, Bucks, Oxfordshire, and 

 Gloucestershire. 



If coal be ultimately mined successfully in the South of England, 

 doubtless wealth may be given to many ; but as your President * 

 and others have remarked, the beauty of the comitry will be ruined. 



9. Conclusion. — The formation and subsequent arrangement 

 of coal and the Coal-measures have been so ordered that the 

 blessings of civilisation have been largely enjoyed wherever 

 the fossil fuel at man's feet has been industriously worked by 

 his hands, and carefully applied to the improvement of his social 

 position. These labours of careful perseverance, and arts of 

 skilful manipulation, have given special characters to those whose 

 energies have been directed to coal-mining and various manu- 

 facturing enterprises ; and all conditions of society have been 

 influenced thereby. 



So also the geologist, chemist, and botanist, seeking out the 

 composition of the various coals, their local position and extent, 

 their special natural history, the mode of passage from dead 

 plants to first-rate fuel — in fact aiming at a complete mastery 

 over all the intricate events and complicated results of the coal 

 formation — not only find a useful exercise of their cultivated 

 intelligence and accumulated knowledge, benefiting all by the 

 practical results, but they widen the mental culture of others, 

 and show how the study of nature is an indispensable element 

 in good education, and necessarily productive of lasting benefit 

 to society at large. 



The subject of coal and the Coal-measures is abundantly 

 treated of in the scientific literature of this century in nearly 

 all parts of the world. Besides having had the advantage 

 of the labours of the many eminent foreign geologists who 

 have advanced our knowledge of the subject in one or other 

 of its various aspects, both by original research and by condensing 

 published results in treatises and manuals for students, we have 

 * In the ' Counties Constitutional Magazine,' December, 1889. 



