149 



Local Botany. 



A Paper has been submitted by Mr. J. Raid on some observa- 

 tions made on the Seed-Produce of Malva Moschata. 



XXXIV. 



THE DOVER COAL FIELD. 



BY 



CAPTAIN McDAKIN. 



Captain McDakin, in a Lecture on Coal, with special 

 reference to the Dorer Coal Boring, said : — 



At a meetiog of the East Kent Natural History Society in 

 December, 1887, Mr. Gr. Dowker, F.G.S., read a Paper on the 

 probability of finding coal in Kent, and referred to a remarkable 

 paper by the late Godwin Austen, read before the Geological 

 Societj' in 185.5, dealing with the same subject, and expressing the 

 opinion that the Coal Fields of Eaglaud, France, and Belgium 

 were once continuous, and that tlie present Coal Fields are mere 

 fragments of a great original deposit. Mr. Dowkor said \vc may, 

 with certainty, conclude that the ])rimary rocks underlie the 

 Northern part of Kent at a less depth than 2,000 feet, and there- 

 fore the Coal Measures will probably be met with. But the 

 sections obtained by boring seem to show that the overlying beds 

 are thinnest towards the N.E., and he concluded that the Isle of 

 Thanet would be a favourable site for the proposed boring. 



The facts brought to notice by the Dover boring fifteen years 

 after have largely confirmed these views. 



When the Dover and Calais tunnel scheme was interdicted in 

 1882, Mr. Chamberlain, then President of the Board of Trade, and 

 Mr. Brady, the Channel Company's Engineer, suggested to the 

 Chairman, .Sir E. Watkin, that the presence of the Coal Measures 

 should be tested by "boring." The spot selected was the same as 

 that which had been chosen for the channel tunnel, near the 

 Western entrance of the Shakespeare tunnel. 



The veteran geologist, Prestwich, in his report to the Coal 

 Commission in 1874, states: — " We know that the great original 



