149 



THE PRESENT STATE OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF 

 CARBONIFEROUS GEOLOGY.* 



Dii. WHEELTON HIND, F.R.C.S., F.G.S. 



The choice of an address to a Society consisting of so many 

 sections is an anxious one. Either the address must be on 

 very broad Hnes, dealing with general principles, or, if tech- 

 nical, and addressed to one section only, the majority of those 

 who are learned in other branches of natural science suffer in 

 the interests of the few. I was told, however, that I was 

 expected to specialise on this occasion, by those whom I dare 

 not disobey, and it seems to me that it will not be amiss to 

 examine the present state of our knowledge of Carboniferous 

 Geology, and to draw attention to important questions which 

 are urgently needing solution, though to compress this subject 

 into a presidential address will be difficult. 



In the year 1888 was published a Volume of Reports of the 

 British Sub-Committees on Classification and Nomenclature 

 of the International Geological Congress, in which was amongst 

 others, a ' report on the Carboniferous, Devonian and Old Red 

 Sandstone.' In it are given tables of fhe general succession 

 of the Carboniferous Rocks in various districts of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, but in only one single instance (p. 143), is even the 

 Generic name of a fossil mentioned. 



Since that date, fortunately, our knowledge of Carboniferous 

 palaeontology and fossil distribution has advanced, and I think 

 we may claim that to-day the broad lines of life zones of the 

 Carboniferous Rocks have been laid down, and firmly estab- 

 lished on a sound footing, and the work of the future will have 

 a foundation on which to build. 



To-day it is a fairly easy task to read the sequence in any 

 district, and on broad lines to correlate one district with another 

 In the first place, it is important to recognise that the lower 

 Carboniferous Rocks were deposited on a sinking land of very 

 irregular surface, so that portions only sank beneath the waves 

 in time to receive deposits characterised by a fauna younger 

 than that which obtains in the older beds. This fact is well 

 illustrated by the comparison of the Bristol and North Wales 

 Carboniferous Limestone series. The basement conglomerate 



* Being the Presidential Address to the Yorkshire NaturaUsts' Union, 

 deUvered at Doncaster, December loth, 1908. 



1909 April I. 



