60 REPORT— 1866. 



without any portion of those deposits of coal which are so thickly spread out to 

 the west of tliis band, whether in the Bristol basin, properly so defined, the Forest 

 of Dean, or the great South Welsh coal-tield. 



So much for nearly the whole of the country lying to the east of the outer- 

 most or underlying baud of all the carboniferous rocks of the south of England 

 and Wales, including the Forest of Dean, to the east of which the non-existence 

 of any coal-measures is rendered still more striking; because, in addition to a 

 rim of mountain-limestone, wholly unproductive of coal, the Old Red Sandstone 

 and Silurian rocks are interposed in the Tortworth country, and on the east are im- 

 mediately covered by the lias and oolites. Tlie same data and the same reasoning 

 must, indeed, be applied to the country extending from that tract northwards, and 

 to the valley of the Severn, and the Cotswold Hills, as well as to all the country 

 lying to the south-east of Cheltenham. 



Who, for example, would speculate on the chance of finding coal to the north 

 of the poor little outlying coal-tract of Xewent, in Gloucestershire, when it is 

 kno'wni that on the north the Silurian and older roclcs rise to the surface ; their 

 flanks being covered at once by Permian or New Eed Sandstone ? Equally absurd 

 would it be to look for coal in those parts of the Severn Valley of Worcester, 

 which lie to the east of the ]Malvern liills, where the New Eed Sandstone also 

 lies directly upon the crystalline and other rocks of that range. 



The Malvern Hills on the south-west, and Charuwood Forest on the north-east, 

 each composed of Cambrian rocks older than the Silurian, form salient promon- 

 tories which seem to me to be indicative of the former southern coast-line of those pro- 

 ductive coal-fields of the Central Coimlies, which have been raised up through the 

 Permian and Xew Eed Sandstone formations. I would not aflirm that the southern- 

 most of these fields, those of Leicestershire and Warwiclishire, have no southern 

 extension, though they give strong signs of deterioration in that direction. I know, 

 however, that to the south of the South Staftbrdshire coal-field, all the produc- 

 tive coal-measures huxe been found b}- actual trials to thin out, old rocks of 

 Silurian age being reached beneath. I presiune, therefore, that no further efiforts 

 will be made in the more southern counties in that meridian. 



On the other hand there can be little doubt that m^t supplies of coal will 

 eventually be worked to the north and west of those fields, far beneath the Pennian 

 and New Eed Sandstone formations of the Midland Comities, wherein the coal- 

 measures have beeu raised to tlie surface by upheaval through those younger 

 deposits. Thus, in the Eed Sandstone tracts between Wolverhampton and Coal 

 Brook Dale, in Cheshire, between tlie Flintshire and Lancashire Coal Fields, and 

 over other large areas similarly circumstanced, there can be little doubt that coal 

 will ultimately be worked — a view which I advocated thirty years ago, and pub- 

 lished in my work, the ' Silurian System.' 



To retm-n to the consideration of the wide southern area in which London lies, 

 let us proceed due north from Eeading. On this line the first ancient rocks we 

 meet with are the slates of Cliarnwood Forest, which are admitted to be of Cam- 

 brian or infra-Silurian age. To the west of these, indeed, lies the Leicester 

 coal-tract, as well as other coal-fields of the central counties to which I have 

 alluded ; but to the east, on the contrary, nothing is seen but secondary rocks, 

 — from the Xew Eed Sandstone and lias to the oolites and cretaceous rocks. Who, 

 then, with such an outcrop of Cambrian slates in the west, would sink for coal in 

 any of the counties lying to the east of Charuwood Forest and Hart Hill ? The 

 recent well-sinking at Harwich to procure water has, indeed, completely solved 

 this portion of the problem. Tliere, beneath 1025 feet of chalk, the trial ended in 

 the discovery of a hard slaty rock, with fossils of the lower carboniferous lime- 

 stone, evidently older than any coal-bearing stratum. Specimens of tliis rock are 

 preserved in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, as a warning to 

 those speculators who would search for coal in the eastern or .south-efistern 

 counties of England. This fact shows indeed conclusively, that the great Belgian 

 coal-field does not extend eastwards to England, thougli the older rocks on which 

 it rests are persistent into our countrv. 



To ■^^•iden the application of the inferences respecting those tracts where coal 

 cannot reasonably be sought for, I may extend the reasoning to parts of Lincolnshire 



