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have described. One thing you may take as proved beyond all 
controversy, namely, the seams of Coal we have found are the 
same seams that have been worked, under considerable difficulty, 
_ the last fifty years, arising from the dislocated and disturbed 
character of the district, and which have been worked for 
_ hundreds of yards to the north, over the head of the veins we 
have lately discovered. 
That being the proved and ascertained fact, the aid of the 
Geologist, and Scientist, is required to account for and explain 
the phenomena before us; and I now venture to give you the 
best explanation I can, and ask your criticism and aid in trying 
to solve the problem with which we are confronted. 
The only explanation that I can give is this,— 
That there has been in the past history of this district a 
time when the whole of the Paleozoic strata, including the Coal 
Measures, have been pushed by some force exerted on the south 
bodily over the top of the Coal-field of the district; and, strange 
-asit may sound, I believe it to be strictly true, that though 
_ this Kingswood Chase Coal-field has been worked more or less 
for some four or five centuries, the real Coal-field, or rather the 
original level of the Coal-field, has never been seen before the 
year 1884. It seems bold and almost rash for me to say this; 
but Iam so satisfied that I am correct that if I were starting 
life again and had £100,000 to spare, I would willingly risk it 
on the correctness of this opinion. Fortunately, however, I 
have no need of expending any great amount of money to 
develop this new Coal-field, for, by singular good luck, my pits, 
machinery, and general arrangements, could not have been 
better placed for working this new field, if I had laid them 
out with that object, and with special regard to the state of 
things recently discovered. 
If I am right in the opinion I have given, I must accept the 
responsibility of pointing out the probable centre and focus of 
the force that has thus pushed the Coal-field and all the inter- 
I can spot the site of the force that has led to this remarkable 
seological phenomenon. 
