ra REPORT—1899. 
cannot doubt the westerly continuity of these Continental coalfields with their vast 
wealth of fuel. ‘ : 
It is, however, by trial only that this important problem or question of value can 
be solved, and we are now obtaining much insight into the intimate geological 
structure of the coal-bearing rocks of the south-east of England, and Kent in par- 
ticular; neither can we doubt the Continental relationship established between 
Eastern France and Belgium with ourselves, with regard to the solution of so large 
a problem as the westerly extension of their coalfields, and coals under the Straits 
of Dover to meet the new enterprise at Dover, established upon and through the 
practical knowledge obtained from the great works in the Borinage and the wealthy 
coalfields of Hainaut. 
_ This naturally gives rise to the significant question, Are the coals at Dover, as 
compared with the great and prolific coalfields of France and Belgium, within the 
depth and capacity at which coal-mining can be carried on at a profit P 
The eight workable seams at Dover commence at 1,113 feet from the surface, 
the Coal Measures being proved to be 782 feet thick with 16 feet of workable coal, 
the lowest or four-foot seam being reached at 2,225 feet Ginches ; this is well within 
the limit of practical working—many of the important coal pits in this country 
are worked at much greater depths, ranging from 2,800 feet to over 3,000 feet. 
The Royal Commission of 1871, under the presidency of the Duke of Argyll, 
appointed ‘to look into the question of several matters relating to our coal in 
the United Kingdom,’ fixed the limit of safe working at 4,000 feet, on account of 
the underground temperature at that depth being 98° or blood heat, hence the legal 
limit of practical working to that depth. 
Connection through the paleozoic rocks of France and Belgium with those 
of the same age in South-east Kent has now been well determined ; the 22 miles 
of what is now sea has been, and probably will again be, dry and continuous land. 
We may now regard this, for want of under-water testing, as probably one of the 
north and south trough-like or transverse fractures occurring along or between the 
severed coal basins between Calais and Westphalia and the valley of the Rhine, 
notably those of Liége, Mons, Bristol and South Wales, &c. 
The interest and value attached to the discovery of coal at Dover is both 
national and scientific; it is as much Continental as British—North France, Belgium, 
and Western Germany have each and all been closely and physically united to us’ 
by a series of now disunited yet connected and rich coal basins, occupying the 
extended line between Dover and the Rhine valley marked and distinguished by 
the great works at Valenciennes, Mons, Charleroi, Liege, and the Prussian province 
of Westphalia. 
We must now bridge the Dover Straits and include the 22 miles of water, as 
covering an additional and buried coalfield, the westerly termination of which is 
now being practically tested, by the great undertaking beneath the far-famed cliffs 
west of Dover, and I doubt not of its westerly development and continuity to the 
northern side of the Mendip Hills, or to the exposed coalfield of Nettlebridge, 
Holcombe, and Vobster, and this with ultimate success under our four great 
masters—Patience, Perseverance, Money, and Time. 
2. On the South-Eastern Coalfield. 
By Professor W. Boyp Dawkins, JLA., 2.8. 
The discovery of a coalfield in 1890 at Dover, in a boring at the foot of 
the Shakespeare Cliff, has been already brought before the British Association 
by the author at Cardiff in 1892, and is so well known that it is unnecessary 
to enter into details other than the following. The carboniferous shales and 
sandstones contain twelve seams of coal, amounting to a total thickness of 23 feet 
5 inches, These occur at a depth of 1,100 feet 6 inches below Ordnance datum, 
and have been penetrated to a depth of 1,064 feet 6 inches, or 2,177 feet 
6 inches from the surface. They are identical, as I have shown elsewhere,’ with 
1 Proc. Royal Inst., June 6, 1890; Zrans. Manchester Geol. Soc., xxii., Feb. 2, 
1894; xxv., Feb. 9, 1897. 
