ON PALAEOZOIC BOCKS IN SOUTH-EAST OP ENGLAND. 227 



X)n some further Evidence as to the Range of the Palceozoic Rocks 

 beneath the South-East of England. By Eobeet A. C. 

 Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



[A communication ordered by the General Committee to be printed 

 in extenso among the Reports.] 



[Plate XIV.] 



In a communication to the Geological Section of the meeting of the British 

 Association at Plymouth in 1878 I called attention to the significance 

 of the result of the deep boring at Messrs. Meux's, as to the Upper 

 Devonian beds there met with, next beneath the cretaceous strata, also as 

 to the importance of some further knowledge as to the direction of the 

 -dip of the said Upper Devonian beds. An accurate acquaintance with this 

 point is essentially needed with reference to its immediate bearing on a 

 question which may possibly become one of national importance, namely, 

 the place of the true Coal-measure series, beneath our south-east area, and 

 which must serve as an excuse for another short communication on the 

 .same subject. 



The question involved has attracted the attention of sundry foreign 

 geologists during the past year ; and upon our own area facts have been 

 ascertained which now enable us to arrive inferentially at what, but a 

 year since, was mere speculation. 



M. Dewalque, at a meeting of the Belgian Geological Society, 1 remarked 

 first on the absence of Jurassic and Triassic deposits, as along the Palaeozoic 

 ridge extending from the Ardennes by the north of France ; being just 

 what the borings at St. Trond, Laeken, Menin, and Ostende, would 

 indicate. Secondly, that inasmuch as the Belgian and north of France 

 primary formations are extended into England, it is an important point, 

 with reference to the prolongation of the Belgian coal-basin, that London 

 should be known to be situated immediately above a formation which is 

 itself so close to the Coal-measures. ' The supposition that the dip of 

 these Upper Devonian beds ' is to the south, and that they belong to the 

 extension of our northern basin, is that which is the most probable. The 

 coal formation may therefore occur at a short distance (quelques kilo- 

 metres) south of London, and at a workable depth.' 



With a southern dip it maybe that these beds (Upper Devonian) belong 

 to the extension of our southern basin. In this case coal may occur in the 

 north as well as on the south, and nearer on this side (K) than on the 

 south. Should there be such a coal basin, it might be as useless as ours 

 (Belgian) of the ' Condros and the Entre Sambre and Meuse.' 2 



In answer to some observations of M. J. Van Scherpenzeel Thim, 



1 Societe Geologique de Belgiques, Bulletin LXV. 



2 The exact significance of this latter alternative of the Belgian geologist may 

 not perhaps be understood by English geologists generally, as it has reference to a 

 feature in the physical structure of Belgium, but the which is very properly referred 

 to by M. Dewalque now that the Paheozoic band of the Continent is known to reach 

 our south-east district. The band of Belgian and North of France coal-measures 

 may be truly represented as trough-shaped, however produced. 



The northern border of the coal basin of Namur is formed of strata each older 

 than the other in a northerly direction. The carboniferous series occurs at the sur- 

 face at Soignies and Journay ; the Devonian at Rhines ; the Silurian at Gembloux. 

 To the north the Silurian strata sink— at Bruxelles they are at 200, and at 300 at. 

 Ostende. The primary formation of the North of Belgium undulates, and the like 

 may be supposed to be the arrangement here. 



Q2 



