M2 Rev. W. D. Cortybeare oil a Geological Map of [f e&. 



Catalonia, in three in Arragon, and one in New Castile ; but no 

 particulars are given : a list of these localities may be found in 

 Laborde's view of that country. 



(F.) Northern France, the Netherlands, and adjacent Parts of 



Germany. 



A great carboniferous tract occupies these countries. 



It may generally be described as extending westwards from 

 Hardinghen near Boulogne (only a few miles from the coast of 

 the channel) by Valenciennes, and thence up the Scheldt and 

 down the Meuse to Eschweiler beyond Aix la Chapelle ; and 

 still further west, many of the coal districts of Northern Ger- 

 many may with great probability be considered as a prolongation 

 of it. 



On the east and north, the great deposits of chalk and the 

 strata above the chalk, skirt and partially (particularly within 

 the limits of Fiance) overlie this tract. On the south, it is 

 bounded by the transition ridges (of slate, greywacke, &c.) 

 which occupy the forest of Ardennes, overhang the magnificent 

 defile of the Rhine from Bingen to Bonn, and thence extend to 

 the Westerwald. This tract does not consist of a single conti- 

 nuous coal field, but of many insulated and basin-shaped deposits 

 of this formation, encircled by carboniferous limestone and old 

 red sandstone. In many respects it bears, even down to the 

 character of its picturesque scenery, a remarkable analogy to the 

 coal districts (likewise consisting of many insulated basins) in 

 the south-west of England. 



We find the most westerly point of this extended chain of 

 coal fields at Hardinghen, in the great denudation exposing the 

 beds beneath the chalk, which comprises the Boulonnais on the 

 French side of the channel, and the Weald of Kent and Sussex 

 on the English ; of this we have before given a general descrip- 

 tion. These coal mines, and the quarries of the carboniferous 

 limestone associated with them, which appear at Marquise, are 

 situated at the veiy foot of the escarpment of the environing 

 zone of chalk hills ; for the outcrop of all the intermediate form- 

 ations crosses this part of the denudation to the south, and, as it 

 were, withdraws to expose the coal ; proceeding westwards, the 

 coal is worked at several places within the general limits of the 

 ovwlying chalk-formation. The environs of Aniche near Douay, 

 and of Monchy le preux near Arras, present deposits of this 

 nature ; the mines surrounding Valenciennes are still more 

 extensive. 



In the environs of Mons, Charleroy, and Namur, in a tract, 

 surrounding Liege ; and lastly close to Eschweiler on the east of 

 Aix la Chapelle, other very considerable coal fields are worked. 



A general account of this line of coal formation may be found 

 in Omalius d'Halloy Geologie du Nord de la France, Journal des 

 Mines, and in Von Raumer's Geognostich Versuche ; many 



