W. Whitaker — Coal-search in S.E. of England. 515 



it is clear that at the latter place we have much less of that series 

 to contend with than at the former. Moreover, it is likely that 

 the rest of the Middle and the Lower Jurassics will share in the 

 thinning and will be of less thickness than at Dover. It seems to 

 me that the Chatham boring should certainly be continued, as a 

 deepening of a few hundred feet would probably show which of the 

 older rocks there comes beneath the Secondaries. Moreover, the 

 site and the land around belong to Government, as also does a 

 neighbouring boring, at Chattenden, which has reached the base of 

 the Gault at the depth of 1162 feet; so that a successful result 

 would benefit the nation. 



4. Shoreham (Kent). A well here, in the valley of the Darent, 

 has gone 26 feet into the Lower Greensand. with a total depth of 

 475 feet, comparatively little Chalk being present. 



In Surrey, at Caterham and at East Horsley, are two borings, to 

 the same depth, 874 feet ; but whilst the former has been carried 

 a little way into the Lower Greensand, the latter has done little 

 more than reach the Gault. I am inclined, for the present, to pass 

 these by, and to turn to the northern side of the London Basin, from 

 west to east. 



5. Bnsheij (Herts). A boring here has been taken nine feet into 

 the Gault, at the depth of 700 feet; but, being at a waterworks (as 

 also is that at Caterham), it probably could not be touched. The 

 knowledge of what would be found here a few hundred feet further 

 down would be very useful, and possibly less than 200 feet would 

 reach the base of the Secondaries. 



6. Longhton (Essex). Here a boring has found water, apparently 

 at the base of the Gault, at the depth of little less than 1100 feet, 

 from which one infers that Lower Greensand may have been 

 touched. It would be well, however, for inference to be supplanted 

 by knowledge. 



We do not know what beds were found in the bottom part of 

 another Essex boring, at Saffron Walcien, which reached to a depth 

 of a little more than 1000 feet. By inference they are Jurassic, the 

 earlier accounts having given much too great a thickness to the 

 Chalk. Here again inference is not enough. 



7. Coombs, near Stowmarket (Suffolk). A boring, 895 feet deep, 

 has here pierced 11 feet of Gault. Judging from what was found 

 at Harwich, some 20 miles S.E., it is not likely that a much greater 

 depth would be needed to reach some member of the older rocks, 

 and, as at Harwich the bottom-rock is Lower Carboniferous, it is 

 to be hoped that further work may be done in that neighbourhood. 



The more northerly boring at Norwich is too far from our base 

 (of knowledge already gained), and that at Holkham, near Wells, 

 at the northern edge of Norfolk, is still more so, besides being no 

 very great distance from the outcrop of thick Jurassic beds. 



Further examination of our great stores of well-sections would 

 perhaps result in the selection of many other sites at which much 

 of the work is already done ; but in the above remarks only such 

 borings as have been carried beneath the Chalk are referred to. 



