296 



CHAPTEE X. 



1878-1888. 



PRESIDENT OF THE REUNION EXTRAORDINAIRE OF THE FRENCH 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY AT BOULOGNE TEXT-BOOK ON ' GEOLOGY ' 



PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS. 



AMONG public questions in which Professor Prestwich 

 took a keen interest was the best locality for a deep 

 boring in the south of England, in order to ascertain 

 the trend of the Coal-Measures. The following letter 

 refers to this subject : 



J. Prestwich to R. A. G. Godwin- Austen. 



21 PARK CRESCENT, 1st January 1879. 



MY DEAR AUSTEN, The fossils I give on the authority of 

 Etheridge. I felt they were not characteristic species of the 

 L. Greensand; but then, as the Upper Greensand and Gault 

 were both traversed, there remained only one other member of 

 the Cretaceous series to which such fossils could be referred. 



With regard to the important question of another boring, of 

 which you speak, I hope and trust that not only one but that 

 several will be made. But this is a bad time for the attempt, 

 on account of the general financial depression, and because so 

 many coal-pits have been opened within the last three or four 

 years, that some hardly pay to work at the present price of 

 coal. I do not, however, know what Major Beaumont is doing. 



