XLVI. 



Coal at H>o\>er. 



ALTHOUGH ordinary folks may not be very well versed 

 in the facts of geological science, the announcement 

 that coal had been found at Dover must have created 

 some considerable amount of surprise. There is no 

 district which less resembles the Black Country than 

 the coast of the Channel, and it may be said that the 

 unexpected, which always happens according to popular 

 tradition, caused as much sensation in the ranks of 

 science as it did beyond the confines of the learned 

 circles. Yet the fact remains that below the chalk 

 cliffs which form the characteristic mark of Albion the 

 Perfidious, the black diamonds have been discovered, 

 and a new source of industry such as will not please 

 Mr. Ruskin at all is likely to be opened up close by 

 the historic Cinque Port itself. 



The men of Kent, instead of importing their coals 

 from afar, may, in their turn, take to selling their car- 

 boniferous products to their less fortunate neighbours, 

 and a geological discovery may, in truth, thus revolu- 

 tionise a whole county. It seems that the suspicion 

 that coal was to be found beneath the chalk, and 

 within accessible distance of the earth's surface, is no 

 recent speculation in geology. Some thirty-five years 

 ago Mr. Godwin Austen laid before the Geological 



