19 
Coal had been recently found in Kent, and a Committee 
had been formed to raise funds to extend the investigations. 
He thought, however, that the matter was one which the 
Government might reasonably be asked to undertake, and to 
receive in return a small royalty of about 1d. per ton on all 
coal raised from coalfields discovered by the Government. 
A history was then given of the position of the rocks, 
commencing with the Plutonic, which were succeeded by the 
Laurentian, Cambrian, Silurian, Old Red, including Devonian, 
upon which rested the great Carboniferous deposits, which 
before they were brought to a close, were subjected to great 
physical disturbance, which produced synclinal and anti-clinal 
curves, and led to the formation of coal basins. 
Then followed the Permian, and whether these beds 
belonged to the Paleozoic or Secondary, he considered a 
debatable point which did not now concern them. 
The Secondary rocks covered up the coal basins, and after 
a time the former were partly denuded, thus giving us what 
are called “visible coalfields.”” But underneath the Secondary 
rocks which remain may there not be coal, and at what depth? 
These rocks are computed to be 17,350 feet thick, but they 
are not persistent, and as Professor Hull has shown, they 
thin out rapidly in an eastward direction. The Middle Lias, 
which at Leckhampton is 115 feet;—at Burford is only 20 
feet. As to whether the Coal Measures have also thinned out 
is a question which might properly be raised, but he wished to 
impress upon them that the physical conditions under which 
the two systems were deposited differed very greatly. 
It was to the late Mr Godwin Austen the credit was due 
of predicting that coal would be found beneath the Secondary 
rocks of the §.E. of England, and he was afterwards sup- 
ported in this view by Professor Prestwich; and coal has 
now been reached at Dover at a depth of 1160 feet. The 
boring passed through 590 feet of the Cretaceous Strata, and 
the remainder was in the Oolite series, ranging from the 
Portlandian to the Bath Oolite; the whole of the lower 
Secondary rocks were absent. 
c 2 
