60 



but with regard to its two extremities, every circumstance 

 induces the behef that their steep incHnation is the result of 

 subsequent upheaval. 



The question then arises, if the present boundaries of the 

 basin are not the natural boundaries, what are the prospects 

 west of the one and east of the other ? In anticlinals it may 

 generally be assumed that any veins or strata proved on one 

 side of the ridge will be found repeated on the other ; and the 

 Mendip ridge being a true anticlinal — or series of anticlinals — 

 it may naturally be expected that the under division of veins 

 proved on its eastern side will ultimately be foimd on the 

 west. 



With regard to the eastern or Bath end of the section, 

 however, the question arises, does the limestone there take 

 the form of an anticlinal ? I am inclined to think that it 

 may, for between the point at Twerton beneath which the 

 limestone must outcrop against the new red sandstone, and 

 the trial shaft at Batheaston already referred to, where the 

 mountain limestone was met with, a distance of three 

 miles intervenes ; and from the angle of inclination at 

 Twerton the mountain limestone could not have been proved 

 at Batheaston unless either a dip in the contrary direction 

 had set in, or some enormous faults had intervened. If, 

 then, an anticlinal does exist there, the inference is that coal 

 may one day be found eastward of Batheaston. 



Of the enormous quantity of coal existing in Somersetshire, 

 it may be said that the greater part is beyond our reach ; 

 but against this I would urge that so useful a mineral as 

 coal cannot have been placed at a depth never to be reached. 

 Mining science may possibly in the end penetrate to the 

 greatest depths at which coal exists, and it may ultimately be 

 found that the gradually increasing depth of our coal-fields is 

 one of the arrangements of Providence to prevent a valuable 

 mineral from being wasted. 



