2i 4 GEOLOGY AS AN ECONOMIC SCIENCE 



of thirty years, geology has been the means of 

 indicating coal-bearing areas that represent an 

 addition of some 50,000 millions of tons to the 

 available coal-supply of this country. 



There remain large areas in Britain of which 

 the extent and productiveness are still unproved, 

 and it is these, as well as the detection of other 

 concealed coal-fields, that will claim the attention 

 of geologists in the future. The time that will 

 elapse before the unproved be proved and the 

 undiscovered detected depends entirely on how 

 systematic an underground exploration by boring 

 will be permitted, and on the condition that geo- 

 logists are allowed a free hand in attacking the 

 problems with which they are confronted. 



Oil. 



For a great number of years the supply of 

 petroleum was obtained from a few districts, and 

 only from wells and deposits located by chance. 

 As the demand increased and new supplies had to 

 be sought for, a scientific study of proved fields 

 was undertaken, with the result that the search was 

 shown to be essentially a geological problem, and 

 one in which geological structure was a controlling 

 factor. The prospecting for mineral-oils, therefore, 

 has been placed on a scientific basis and is being 

 prosecuted by trained geologists, in all parts of the 

 world where the geological formations and geological 

 structure indicate success, in a manner which has 



