248 = Messrs. Young and Bird’s Reply to Mr. Winch. [Ocr. 
observers will sometimes overlook interesting phenomena. We 
have probably made similar mistakes or omissions in our Survey; 
and if any literary friend shall point them out, we shall feel 
obliged, rather than offended. The shells in the Hartlepool 
limestone are not numerous; so that Mr. Winch might collect a 
hundred specimens containing none; and had our observations 
been confined to a single quarry, they might have escaped our 
notice as well as his. We found them, however, not only in 
quarries, but in the rocks along the shore, and in several stone 
walls, constructed with materials procured on the spot. 
In the second instance quoted by Mr. W. there is no differ- 
ence between him and us im our description of what is visible, 
but merely in our opinions respecting what is hypothetical; and 
he seems to have introduced the passage only for the sake of 
exposing a blunder of ours, in applying the term basaltic to the 
dyke near Cullercoats. But if he will read our words over again, 
he may perceive that the blunder is his own. We applied no 
such epithet to that dyke; for in comparing it with our basaltic 
dyke, we merely call it ‘ a similar dyke or vein,” as it intersects 
the strata in a similar way. Its materials form no part of the 
subject under discussion in the passage referred to, and do not 
affect our arguments. 
Our remarks on the improper use of the term coal basin are 
produced by Mr. W. as another attack on him, though they are 
not aimed at any one author in particular; and though, like our 
observations on dykes, they oppose his statements only in mat- 
ters of opinion. We do not call in question the accuracy of his 
sections, but the justness of the inferences which he would deduce 
from them. We maintain that coal strata are not more subject 
to undulations and depressions than other strata ; and that where 
the coal strata form a basin, the strata above, and those below, 
must, to a certain extent, assume the same shape. Our opinion 
on this point coincides with that of Mr. Westgarth Forster, 
whose acquaintance with the coal and lead mines of Northum- 
berland and Durham is at least not inferior to that of Mr. Winch. 
He remarks, in the new edition of his Treatise on a Section of 
the Strata, &c p. 13: “ A seam, or bed, of coal is a real stratum, 
which is found to be quite as regular as any of the concomitant 
strata found in the coal-field, lying above or below the coal ; or 
indeed as any other of the various strata which compose the 
external crust of our globe.” 
But the passage which has given most offence to Mr. Winch 
(and indeed the only one that can with any plausibility be con- 
sidered as offensive) is that where we allege, that his geological 
“* Observations on the Eastern Part of Yorkshire,” are not the 
result of personal examination, but compiled from “ scraps of 
information collected from others.” To those who are unac- 
quainted with this district, and consequently unable to decide on 
the merits of Mr, Winch’s paper, our remark may appear severe; 
