1910] on The Search for New Coal-Fields in England 637 



and to pass under a part of England where the great thickness of 

 Secondary strata has hitherto proved a bar to exploration. The 

 question whether it links itself up with the system of Armorican 

 folds which traverse the south of Ireland, Pembrokeshke, South 

 Olamorganshire and Somerset, is not yet solved, nor is it possible to 

 say whether any coal-tields are entangled in it, corresponding to those 

 of the Continental trough. This can be settled by boring, and in 

 no other way. 



The examples of concealed coal-fields which I have brought 

 before you illustrate the nature of the geological work which is 

 required. The mapping of the newer formations presents no excep- 

 tional difficulties, and is being carried out by the Geological Survey 

 with precision on the large scale maps now available. At the same 

 time attention is especially concentrated on the less easy task of 

 identifying the subdivisions of the upper coal measures, and of 

 •determining the effects of faults in them ; or, what is equally impor- 

 tant, of ascertaining where the sequence of strata below them is 

 likely to be complete. For in some parts of the country these 

 barren upper measures overlap all the lower and productive measures, 

 ' and rest directly upon older formations. This is probably the case 

 at Batsford, and may be the case at Burford (Fig. 5). 



Progress in the search depends much also upon the correct inter- 

 pretation of the results obtained in boreholes. The recognition of 

 the principal formations traversed by the holes is important, but 

 scarcely less so is the identification of certain bands in the productive 

 €oal measures which are characterized by marine fossils, or of the 

 subdivisions of the upper measures by their lithological characters. 

 These and other determinations can be made only by a skilled 

 geologist, and as a fact the information that should have been gained 

 in many deep boreholes has been lost to the nation for want of 

 geological assistance. 



The Royal Commission on Coal Supplies realized this defect in 

 administration, and in their final Report (1905) inserted the following 

 clause : — " A large number of borings have been made in various 

 parts of the country ranging to upwards of 3,000 ft. in depth. At 

 present no machinery exists for preserving any information thus 

 ■obtained, and we think it would be of great advantage if particulars 

 of borings could be collected and preserved in a Government office." 



In 1913 I referred to the subject in a Presidential Address to the 

 Geological Society in the following terms : — 



" This recommendation contemplates the inclusion of scientific 

 results among the other particulars to be preserved, and oh this 

 account it might not be acceptable to explorers who for financial 

 reasons were desirous of keeping to themselves the information 

 which they had been put to expense to gain. There would probably 

 be no difficulty in meeting the wishes of the explorers on this point ; 

 but, at any rate, the objection would not apply to the registration of 



