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Belgium and the North of France. In a paper on the South 
Western District of England, contributed to the Geological 
Society by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Conybeare, as long ago as the 
year 1826, they noticed its resemblance, both in geological. 
structure and picturesque features, to the country between 
Namur and Liege; and, in an important paper by Mr. Godwin 
Austin in the “ Proceedings of the Geological Society” for 1855, he 
expressed a decided opinion that the Coal Measures of a large 
portion of England, France, and Belgium were once continuous, 
the present coal fields being merely the fragments of one original 
deposit. Sir Roderick Murchison held a contrary view, and read 
a paper on the subject before the British Association, at 
Nottingham, in 1866, but the opinion advocated by Mr. Godwin 
Austin and others seems destined to prevail. 
During the inquiry of the Royal Coal Commission, in the year 
1871, the question was considered of so much importance that 
Committee D, which was presided over. by Sir Roderick 
Murchison, devoted much attention to the subject, and Professors 
Ramsay, Etheridge and Hull were called to give evidence, the 
result of which was embodied in an able report by Professor 
Prestwich, which will well repay a careful perusal ; and, although 
speculative Borings, since put down in various parts of the South 
of England, have failed to prove the existence of Coal Measures 
eastward of Frome, many are still confident of ultimate success. 
Being much interested in the question, the writer, in the: 
summer of 1886, accompanied the South Wales Institute of 
Engineers through some of the most interesting parts of Belgium, 
when he was much impressed with the similarity of conditions to 
those with which he was familiar nearer home ; and more 
recently he has obtained much additional information on the 
subject from Dr. Hovelacque, of Paris, who attended the British 
Association meeting at Bath in 1888, and spent much of his time 
in visiting the Radstock Coalfield. Dr. Hovelacque’s special 
object was to compare the specimens obtainable at Radstock with 
