TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 731 
this being mainly accomplished through the numerous trials by boring at sites 
selected where the probability of the continuity of the Coal Measures may be 
determined, westward, or beyond Dover, towards the South Somerset coalfield 
or southern end of the Bristol coal basin. 
The physical identity of the coal-bearing district of Southern Somerset on the 
west with the coalfields of Northern France and Belgium to the east was recognised 
as far back as 1826, as well as the fact that the Coal Measures and their associated. 
or accompanying coals lie deeply buried under a variable thickness of Cretaceous 
and Tertiary rocks. 
It now remains to practically trace and extend the Belgian and French coal- 
fields further west from Dover, which it is believed will ultimately prove to 
constitute a continuous chain of isolated coal basins extending to the northern 
side of the Mendip Hiils to join the exposed coalfield of Nettlebridge and Vobster 
south of the Radstock and Farrington basins. 
The Dover boring, carried down to the depth of 2,225 feet, has shown that the 
deeper coals are of the same character as the rich bituminous coals of Mons and 
Bruay, but thicker ; the four lower seams at Dover unitedly measure 12 feet. The 
extent of the unexplored area between Dover and the Great Western coal track, 
originally included in the South Wales, Somerset and Gloucester, or Bristol coal- 
field, is about 160 miles. 
The upper series or the Radstock and Farrington basins, which lie above or 
rest upon the thick Pennant sandstones, contain the thin but finest bituminous 
coals, which appear upon analysis to correspond chemically with the coals at Dover 
and those of the French and Belgian basins, especially those of Mons and 
Valenciennes. 
The lower coals proved at Dover appeared to be of as high a class as the 
Radstock, and also will compare with the thirty-seven samples of Welsh coals 
which were analysed by Sir H. De la Beche and Dr. Lyon Playfair in 1850, 
37 Samples of South Wales Coal 
required for the Navy 
The 4 lower seams 
of the Dover Coal 
Carbon 83°80 83'78 
Hydrogen . : 4:65 4:79 
Nitrogen . . 97 98 
Oxygen C . 3°23 4:15 
Heating power 14°858 units 14°858 units 
Comparison with 53 samples of the midland and north country coals suited for 
the Royal Navy, and analysed by the same two gentlemen in 1850, is even closer 
and more favourable :— 
Gbal toni the Newcastle Derby and Yorkshire | Lancashire 
ie, Dover boring 
18 Samples 7 Samples 28 Samples 
Carbon . 83°80 82°12 79°68 77:90 
Hydrogen 4°65 5:31 4:94 5°32 
Nitrogen oF 4:94 1:41 1:30 
Oxygen. 3:23 5°69 10:28 9°53 
Heating power 14867 14°820 13°860 13:19 
The coal at Dover is uniformly good, pure, and clean throughout the twelve 
seams which were penetrated in a thickness of 1,054 feet, the four-foot seam 
being at present the thickest. The borehole was carried down 105 feet below 
the four-foot to test the continuity of the Coal Measures still remaining to be proved. 
The most easterly of the eight coal basins, that of the Ruhr, gives names to the 
second largest and most productive coalfield in Germany, ranging 60 miles from 
west to east, with a breadth of 25 miles or 1,500 square miles, 
