66 
this continental coalfield being bounded also to the S. by a range 
of older rocks, similar in some respects to that which forms the 
Southern margin of the English basin. 
And if a careful comparison of these coalfields shows that in 
many essential features they so nearly correspond as to establish 
their probable identity, it must lead to the hope that in the 
intervening area under the S.E. counties of England the missing 
link may yet be discovered.* 
* When the writer penned these words he little thought that within 
three days the discovery of a Coalfield in the S.E. of England would 
become an accomplished fact, thus establishing beyond all doubt the 
correctness of the opinions long held by Mr. Godwin Austin, Professor 
Prestwich and others, which the writer had the honour of bringing 
under the notice of this Club in a paper on “The Geographical 
Position of the Carboniferous Formation in Somersetshire, with Notes 
on Possible Coal Areas in adjoining districts of the South of England,” 
read 15th January, 1873, and published in the “ Proceedings” of that 
year. 
The discovery is due to the enterprise of the South Eastern Railway 
Company, under the advice of their Engineer, Mr. Francis Brady, and 
of Professor Boyd Dawkins, who in a boring at Shakespear Cliff, 
Dover, have reached the Coal Measures. 
Full details of this boring have not yet been made public, but ina 
recent communication to the Manchester Geological Society Professor 
Boyd Dawkins has given the following particulars of the strata met 
with :— 
Feet. 
1 Cretaceous Rocks 7 SAA Gee 500 
2 Oolitic Rock .. se ies 660 
1,160 
3 Coal Measures, Sandstones, Shales and Clays... 20 
and he stated “that a seam of good blazing coal was met with on the 
15th February last, at a depth of 1,180 feet.” 
The public are to be congratulated on a discovery the importance of 
which can hardly be overestimated. 
