VOL. XIV. (1) THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 5 
Mr. S. S. Buckman, entitled “ Bajocian and Contiguous 
Deposits in the North Cotteswolds; the Main Hill Mass.” 
PART II. COAL AND THE COAL QUESTION. 
I have felt some difficulty in selecting a subject for an 
address on this occasion. Since our last Annual Meeting 
the nineteenth century has come to an end, and our 
thoughts have been directed to the progress of events 
during the last hundred years. In no previous century 
has there been such an unfolding of Nature. For an 
Annual Address to the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field 
Club, therefore, one is rather confused with the variety 
of subjects which present themselves. 
There is, however, one subject which I have so far not 
seen noticed in the various reviews dealing with the pro- 
gress and events of the nineteenth century. It may be 
described as Coal and the Coal Question. There are two 
aspects of this subject. One is the origin of coal deposits, 
which may be regarded as simply interesting: the other is 
the extent to which the coalfields of Great Britain have 
been worked, and the vastly important consideration as to 
the duration of their deposits. 
If coal seams were not stratified deposits hidden deep 
in the earth, but accumulations on the surface, we should 
probably be somewhat alarmed at the rapidly diminishing 
quantity of the stock; but because the vast voids which 
are created beneath the surface are unseen, I sometimes 
think that we are living in a fools’ paradise with regard to 
the duration of the most valuable of our coal-seams. We 
are re-assured in various ways. Some point to vast coal 
deposits in the north-west of Canada, India, China, and 
other parts of the world. These deposits, however, are 
not all of the same age as the English Coal Measures. For 
