154 DISCOVERY CH. 



examples are found in other departments of natural 

 knowledge. 



By acute reasoning from observed facts relating to 

 the character and arrangement of the coal-fields and 

 associated rocks of Somersetshire and South Wales on 

 the west, and of the Belgian and North French coal- 

 fields on the east, Lieut.-Col. Godwin-Austen showed in 

 a memorable paper to the Geological Society of London 

 in 1856 that, in all probability, similar coal-fields 

 were buried beneath the newer strata of the intervening 

 region. Combining all the observations then available, 

 he finally concluded that there were coal-fields in the 

 south-east of England sufficiently near the surface to 

 allow of their being of great economic value. 



This prediction of the existence of coal, based upon 

 purely geological considerations, has been fulfilled, and it 

 affords a striking example of the application of scientific 

 reasoning. Whether the quantity and quality of the 

 coal in Kent will make its working a profitable under- 

 taking has yet to be proved, but in spite of this, it is 

 little short of marvellous that geologists should be able 

 to see in imagination the coal seams' extending under- 

 ground from England to Belgium and France, and should 

 be able to say so confidently, " Seek, and ye shall find," 

 to the prospectors who have followed them. The pre- 

 diction of the existence of coal in Kent, hundreds of 

 miles from the great coal-fields, is a remarkable example 

 of successful scientific induction based upon careful 

 observations. 



New results and new ideas often meet with severe 

 criticism in the scientific world. Newton's experiments 

 with a glass prism were marvels of accurate study and 

 cautious conclusion, yet they brought him more trouble 

 than praise. He proved that white light is not 



