380 report — 1878. 



remarkable as it consists of exceedingly fine and beautifully laminated 

 clay, and this high dip is most regular through a considerable distance, 

 and not only close to the fallen blocks, where it might be thought to have 

 been produced by their fall. Some of this clay is exceedingly black, 

 and may possibly be, therefore, derived from the dark Yoredale Shales 

 overlying the Mountain Limestone, which at the period when the clay was 

 formed probably covered a much greater area, and nearer to the Cave, than 

 that which they occupy at present. 



Your Committee is of opinion that, though the labours of the year 

 have brought us but a small interest for our money, as compared with the 

 results of former years, the undertaking may be an improving one, and 

 eventually, if persevered iu, lead to greater results than any lately obtained 

 by us, and therefore your Committee beg to be reappointed. 



One member of the Committee, Professor W. 13. Dawkins, requests 

 that his dissent from this Report be distinctly recorded. 



Report of a Committee, consisting of Mr. Godwin-Austen, Professor 

 Prestwich, Mr. Davidson, Mr. Etiieridge, Mr. Willett, and 

 Mr. TorLEY, appointed for the purpose of assisting the Kentish 

 Boring Exploration. Drawn up by Mr. Godwin-Austen. 



1 REGRET to have to report that during the past year nothing whatever 

 has been done to warrant an application for anj* portion of the grant 

 placed at the disposal of the " Kentish Boring Exploration," the more so 

 as results have been arrived at by private enterprise which certainly 

 give the information sought for — namely, whether Palaeozoic rocks, and 

 what might next underlie the chalk formation of some part of the S.E. 

 of England, as is the case in Belgium and the North of France. 



So soon as it was ascertained that at the corner of Tottenham Court 

 Road and Oxford Street there occurred characteristic upper Devonian 

 strata at about 1000 feet from the surface, the whole question, and all 

 that it involves, seemed to be answered, and the supposition of the report 

 of the Coal. Commission, which as far back as 1871 had indicated the line 

 of the Thames Valley as that of the course of the said Palaeozoic band, 

 was proved to be correct.* One single point remained in doubt, 

 namely — in which direction from the end of Tottenham Court Road 

 may the mountain-limestone and coal-measure formations be looked for ? 

 It may be asked, why is it to be certainly inferred that any such sequence 

 obtains at Tottenham. A satisfactory answer, from our acquaintance- 

 with the physical and geological history of the European area, in early 

 times, can be given to this. 



The so-called " Devonian " is not in any sense a distinct formation, 

 except in respect of priority of deposition ; it is simply an early stage of 

 a series which in progress of time, and over a corresponding area, passed 

 on to what is known as the " Mountain-limestone series." Across the- 

 whole of Central Europe the order of succession of this upper Palaeozoic 

 series is the same — namely, 1st, lower carboniferous or Devonian ; 2ndly, 



* P. 432, qu. 267. " (Mr. Prestwich) : You would be disposed then to carry the 

 line of probable coal -measures under the valley of the Thames. Answer: Yes," &e. 



