467 



atone, together with isolated patches of the Millstone grit, dip 

 northwards in the direction of Bath, and southward towards Wells. 

 But although the Coal measures are met with in their greatest 

 thickness and perfection on the northern side of those hills, pre- 

 cluding the idea of this having been the margin of the basin in 

 which they were originally deposited, we have hitherto had no 

 evidence of their presence towards to the south, unless we accept 

 as such the carbonaceous beds of North Devon. 



In the year 1815, the late Earl of Ilchester, acting under the 

 advice of Wm. Smith, put down a boring at Compton Dundon to 

 discover coal. It began in the Keuper marls, in which it was 

 continued to a total depth of 173 yards, but without success. 



Another unsuccessful trial was made a year or two ago near to 

 Marston, on lands belonging to the Earl of Cork. It began in the 

 Oxford clay, and after sinking and boring to a depth of 600 feet, 

 without getting through the secondary rocks, the work was 

 abandoned. 



We have nothing further to guide us until we reach the Quantock 

 hills, where there is a large exposed area of Devonian, forming 

 the southern boundary of the district under consideration. 

 At Cannington Park, in the northern slope of the Quautocks, 

 certain limestones were until lately believed to be of carboniferous 

 age, but Mr. Etheridge has pronounced them to be Devonian. 



Against the prospects in this southern area three objections have 

 been raised : first, that as the Mountain limestone on the southern 

 slope of the Mendips, and the Devonian on the northern flank of 

 the Quantocks are covered by secondary rocks without any ap- 

 pearance of true Coal measures between, coal does not exist there ; 

 second, that as the rich Coal measures of Somersetshire degenerate 

 southwards into the worthless Culm measures of Devon we are not 

 likely to meet with coal of any commercial value ; and thirdly, that 

 if Goal measures exist at all they lie at too great a depth to be con- 

 sidered workable. In the first of these objections T can see no 

 force whatever. In the known basin to the north of the Mendips 

 the Mountain limestone is immediately overlaid by the Trias foi* 

 eighty miles out of a hundred of its course, but valuable coal exists 

 there nevertheless. As to the second objection, I would remark 



