244 J. nopKiNSON — eece:n^t discovery of 



That the p;cological sequence should be broken below the Gault 

 was previously unsuspected b}' him. The Lower Greensand, cropping 

 out both north and south of London, and skirting the Gault con- 

 tinuously, " from a surface examination of the ground there could 

 be," he said, " no apparent reason for supposing that the same de- 

 posit was not continuous underground." * In a remarkable paper 

 " On the Possible Extension of the CoaLMeasurcs beneath the 

 South-eastern Part of England,"! communicated to the Geological 

 Society whilst this boring was in progress, and before its unex- 

 pected results were made known, Mr. Godwin- Austen had, however, 

 stated it as his opinion that an axis of Palaeozoic rocks was pro- 

 longed from the Ardennes under the London Tertiary district, and 

 that a band of Coal-measures coincided with the line of the valley 

 of the Thames, where it might some day be reached. 



The conclusion arrived at by Prof. Prestwich that the Kentish 

 Town beds are of Old Ped Sandstone age J has been confirmed, or 

 at least shown to be most probably correct, by a boring which has 

 recently been made at Messrs. Meux & Co.'s brewery in Tottenham 

 Court Road ; and the opinion expressed twenty-five years ago by 

 Mr. Godwin-Austen, that an axis of Palaeozoic rocks passes under 

 London, has at the same time been proved to be correct. In the 

 artesian well at Messrs. Meux's, after passing through 156|- feet of 

 Tertiary strata, 655A- feet of Chalk, 28 feet of the Upper Greensand, 

 160 feet of Gault, and 64 feet of Lower Greensand, a total depth 

 of 1064 feet, beds of undoubted Upper Devonian age, as proved by 

 their fossils, were met with, dipping under the Lower Greensand 

 at an angle of 35 degrees. Unfortunately the direction of the dip, 

 and therefore the direction of the strike of the beds, could not be 

 ascertained. Eocks which from their mineral character are believed 

 to be of Devonian age have also been met with, at a depth 

 of 1008 feet, in a boring at Crossness, on the south bank of the 

 Thames, below Blackwall. Detailed sections of these, and particiilars 

 of other recent borings, have been given by Professor Prestwich in 

 a paper on the Tottenham Court Poad well-section read before the 

 Geological Society about twelve months ago.§ 



For the result arrived at from the Tottenham Court Poad boring, 

 we are indebted to the Diamond Pock Boring Company, or rather 

 to their method of boring by means of diamonds. This method the 

 members of our Society had an opportunity of becoming acquainted 

 with last year at the New Piver Company's boring between Hert- 

 ford and Ware. || At the date of our visit the boring had been 

 carried to a depth of 250 feet, and cores of chalk about fifteen 



* 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc' vol. xii, p. 9. t lb. p. 38.-1856. 



;|: The tei'in Old Eed Sandstone is here used as synonymous with that of 

 Devonian. 



§ " On the Section of Messrs. Meux & Co.'s Artesian Well in the Tottenham 

 Court lload, with Notices of ihe Well nt Cros.sness, and of anotlier at Shoreham, 

 Kent ; and on the probahle Range of the Lower Greensand and I'alajozoiu Rouks 

 under London." Jb. vol. xxxiv, p. 902. — 1878. 



II See ' Trausactions,' Yol. I, p. xxviii. 



