614 BEPORT 1891. 



Section C— GEOLOGY. 

 Pkesident op the Section — Professor T. Rupeet Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 20. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



CONTENTS. 



1. Introduction. 2. Coal-field of South Wales, as studied by Logan, De la Beche, 

 and others. 3. Origin of Coal. 4. Area of the Coal-growth. 5. Coal-field of 

 South Wales : its extent, thickness, and constituent strata. C. Output of Coal in 

 South Wales. 7. Varieties of Coal. 8. Constituents of Coal-measures and of 

 Coal. 9. Fossils of the Coal-measures of South Wales. 10. Extent of the Coal- 

 measures under the South of England. 11. Conclusion. 



1. Introduction. — The black stones that hum probably came to be known by pre- 

 historic people through accident, here and there, long before any notion of their 

 worth to the community at large was entertained. Wood at first, and then char- 

 coal, supplied fuel far into historic times, on every hand, except perhaps in China. 

 In the first century of the Christian era the Romans, occupying England, met with 

 coal, and probably learnt its use from the natives. It seems, however, to have 

 been disregarded during the Saxon conquest and domination of this island ; but by 

 the beginning of the twelfth century the use of coal was well in hand again, as 

 shown by old charters relating to places in Scotland and the county of Durham. 



The history of the use of coal is treated of in the following books : — ' The Coal- 

 fields of Great Britain: their History, Structure, and Resources, with notices of 

 the Coal-fields of other parts of the World.' By Edward Hull, M.A., &c., with 

 maps and illustrations. 8vo. London. First edition, 1861 ; second, 1861 ; third, 

 1873; fourth, 1881. 'Coal: its History and Uses.' By Professors Green, Miall, 

 Thorpe, Riicker, and Marshall. Edited by Professor Thorpe. 8vo. London, 1878. 

 Also in the unpretentious pamphlet, ' The History of Coal.' By the Rev. Thomas 

 Wiltshire, M.A., &c. 8vo. London, 1878. Of course the most comprehensive 

 work on the British Coal-measures is the ' Report of the Commissioners appointed 

 to Inquire into the several matters relating to Coal in the United Kingdom,' 

 3 vols., with maps and sections. Fol. London, 1871. Other valuable works 

 are : W. AV. Smyth's ' Coal and Coal-mining,' 8vo. 1867, and later editions ; and 

 Richard Meade's ' Coal and Iron Industries of the United Kingdom,' &c. Svo. 

 London, 1882. * Coal : its Geological and Geographical Position,' by Professor John 

 Morris, 8vo., London, 1862, although only a pamphlet, is valuable for its 

 information. 



The subject of Coal and the Coal-measures is abundantly treated of in the 

 scientific literature of this centurj' in nearly all parts of the world, and it would 

 be useless to endeavour to do justice to its bibliography. Besides having had the 

 odvantage of the labours of the many eminent foreign geologists who have advsEced 



