1896. JOSEPH PRESTWICH. 93 



sophical questions, geology deals also with the requirements of civilised 

 man, showing him the best mode of providing for many of his wants, 

 and guiding him in the search of much that is necessary for his welfare. 

 The questions of water-supply, of building materials, of metalliferous 

 veins, of iron- and coal-supply, and of surface-soils, all come under 

 this head, and constitute a scarcely less-important, although a more 

 special, branch of our science than the palaeontological questions 

 connected with the life of past periods, or than the great theoretical 

 problems relating to physical and cosmical phenomena." 



He reverted to the subject of water-supply soon after he came to 

 reside in Oxford, publishing a pamphlet on the geological conditions 

 affecting water-supply to houses and towns, with especial reference to 

 that city. He dealt in 1874 "^^^^^ ^^^^ subject of the proposed tunnel 

 between England and France, and his essay, published by the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, gained for him the Telford Medal. 



At an earlier period he superintended the enquiries concerning 

 the Bristol and Somerset coal-field for the Royal Coal Commission, 

 and prepared reports (published in 1871) on that area, and on the 

 probability of finding coal under the newer formations of the south of 

 England. With regard to the latter subject he took a favourable view, 

 and observed that we might look for coal-basins " along a line passing 

 from Radstock, through the vale of Pewsey, and thence along the 

 North Downs to Folkestone." The results of the Dover boring have, " 

 so far, justified this conclusion, which was based on the acute 

 geological reasonings of Godwin-Austen. At various periods, more- 

 over, he described important well-sections at Yarmouth, Harwich, 

 Kentish Town, and Meux's Brewery in London. 



The completion of his labours among the Eocene strata allowed 

 Prestwich to devote more time to the newer deposits, which had on 

 various occasions engaged his attention. 



He had examined the Norwich Crag as early as 1834, i'^ com- 

 pany with S. Woodward, and he then found a tooth of Elephas 

 meridional is in the Thorpe pit. Accompanied by Godwin-Austen, 

 Morris, and Alfred Tylor, he had, in 1849, made a short excursion 

 into the crag district, and he then suggested that the fossiliferous 

 shell-bed which overlies the Red Crag, at Chillesford, might represent 

 the Norwich Crag. He returned, in 1858, to the subject of the crag 

 in his description of the remnants of that deposit which occur at 

 Lenham and other places on the Chalk areas of the North Downs. 

 Although the species of fossils were but doubtfully identified by 

 Searles Wood, and some authorities came to regard them as probably 

 Eocene, yet Prestwich contended for their Pliocene age, and his 

 views have been fully confirmed by the subsequent observations of 

 Mr. Clement Reid. 



In 1868, he communicated to the Geological Society the first 

 part of his elaborate work " On the Structure of the Crag-beds of 

 Suffolk and Norfolk." The three parts were published in 1871. 



