11 

 LANCASHIRE IN THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 



By PROFESSOR W. BOYD DAWKINS, M.A., F.R.S. 

 January 11th, 1887, 



In choosing the subject which I proiDose to lay before you 

 this evening, I was influenced mainly by two ideas. In the first 

 place, I wanted to point out to you that the study of the ancient 

 history of the earth is by no means a thing of long names, but 

 in itself an interestmg subject. My second reason was to show 

 you that the geography of the earth as we find it now is not in 

 the least degree shut out firom the ancient histoiy of the earth. 

 In other words, I wanted to show you how it is possible to re- 

 construct the geography of Lancashu-e even so far back as the 

 carboniferous period ; and in doing that I wanted you pai'ticularly 

 to see how exceedingly simple, easy, and natural the geological 

 or scientific method is. For, as a rule, when a thing is abstruse 

 and wi-apped up in long words it is a thing which for the most 

 part is not understood even by the people who use the long words. 

 My friend, Mr. Freeman, the historian, has said a veiy good 

 thing to me upon that point, and which I think bears upon what 

 I am saying now. He said to me "Whenever I know a thing 

 well myself and I want other people to know it too, I use short 

 words, but supposing I don't know a thing well or don't wish 

 peoj)le to know what I am talking about, then I use long words." 

 I shall attempt, therefore, to-night to give what I have to say as 

 plainly, as simply, and as straightforwardly as possible. 



In the first place, in dealing with the geography of Lanca- 

 shire, I want you to foUow me with regard to our method. 

 Supposing we take our stand upon the sea shore, at high water 

 mark there are the long hnes of pebble upon the shingle beach, 

 and if you follow them away from the high water mark, as you 

 can sometimes, towards the low tide, you wUl find that the 

 shingle is replaced by the sand. Fii'st you have the shingle, 

 then the sand, and if you were to go still further away beneath 

 the sm-face of the water you would get another set of deposits 

 called the muds. Thus you will note that on the present shores 

 we have thi-ee distinct deposits — the shingle near the line, 

 the sand, and the mud. In other words, the materials borne 

 away by the waves from the land are deposited in a long series 

 of bands lapping round our coast line, and if we examined the 

 distribution of these deposits from the coast line towards the 

 deeper waters we should get not more than, at the very outside, 

 100 fathoms for the sand and shingle, and for the most part very 

 much less, whUe we may have muds deposited in water which is 

 deeper than 100 fathoms. We may have, as for instance in the 



