570 Rejiorts and Proceedings — Prof. T. Rupert Jones — Address. 



pared the coal-beds of Somerset and Belgium, described the characters and relations 

 of the strata in detail, and showed that the coal might be met with at a workable 

 distance from the surface along a narrow but interrupted curved area from West- 

 phalia, through Belgium and France, to England ; then along the north-eastern 

 part of Kent (Isle of Thanet, etc.), and through Herts, Bucks, Oxfordshire, 

 Gloucestershire, to the Bristol coal-field, and on to South Wales. The coincident 

 axis of disturbance is south of the river Thames, in his opinion throwing ofE the 

 coal-beds on its northern flank. 



Mr. W. Galloway has given in the "Cardiff Nat. Soc. Report," vol. xvii. 1856, 

 p. 23, a sketch of the views here alluded to. A full account of the history and 

 literature of the question of the underground range of the older rocks in the South- 

 east of England, especially as to the possible occurrence of the Coal-measures, is 

 published in the " Memoirs of the Geological Survey : The Geology of London and 

 of Part of the Thames Valley," vol. i. 1889, pp. 13-28, by Mr. Whitaker, F.R.S., 

 who, having given close attention to this subject, has suggested the following 

 localities as likely sites in the search for coal in the South-east of England : St. 

 Margaret's, Chartham, Chatham, and Shoreham, all in Kent; Bushey (Herts), 

 Loughton (Essex), and Coombs, near Stowmarket (Sutfolk).^ 



An interesting fact relating to this matter is that in February, 1890, the engineer 

 of a boring at the foot of Shakespear's Cliff, Dover, announced that at 1204 feet 

 below the surface there a thin seam of coal was met with, and at several yards 

 lower down coal eight feet thick was pierced, associated with clays, grits, and 

 blackish shales (Newspapers). In Dr. Blanford's " Anniversary Address to the 

 Geological Society " on February 21, 1890, he stated that Professor Boyd Dawkins, 

 in a letter received the day before, had informed him that a coal-seam had reaily 

 " been reached at a depth of 1180 feet, and that this seam is proved to be of Car- 

 boniferous age by the plant-fossils in the associated clays. . . . The discovery is solely 

 the result of scientific induction, and arrived at by following the line of research first 

 indicated, I believe, by the late Mr. Godwin- Austen, and subsequently by Professor 

 Prestwich." The boring was undertaken with the advice of Professor W. Boyd 

 Dawkins ; ^ and we learn, from his latest Report,^ that the Coal-measures were 

 reached at 1113 feet below high-water mark, and were penetrated to 1500 feet; 

 also that in the 387 feet of Coal-measures six seams were met with, giving an 

 aggregate of 10 feet of coal. The distance of the Coal-measures below high-water 

 mark is a near approximation to Professor Prestwich's computation of the probable 

 depth at which coal might be found in that part of Kent, namely, 1000 to 1100 

 feet * The account of the coal-plants or other fossils from these beds has not yet 

 been published. 



11. Conclusion. — The formation and subsequent arrangement of coal and the 

 Coal-measures have been so ordered that the blessings of civilization have been 

 largely enjoyed wherever the fossil fuel at man's feet has been industriously worked 

 by his hands, and carefully applied to the improvement of his social being. These 

 labours of careful perseverance, and arts of skilful manipulation, have given special 

 characters to those whose energies have been directed to coal-mining and various 

 manufacturing enterprises ; and all conditions of society have been influenced thereby. 



So also the geologist, chemist, and botanist, seeking out the composition of the 

 various coals, their local position and extent, their special natural history, the mode 

 of passage from dead plants to first-rate fuel — in fact, aiming at a complete mastery 

 over all the mazy events and complicated results of the coal-formation — not only 

 find a useful exercise of their cultivated intelligence and accumulated knowledge, 

 benefiting all by the practical results, but they widen the mental culture of others, 

 and show how the study of nature is an indispensable element in good education, 

 and necessarily productive of lasting benefit to society at large. 



1872; Popular Science Eeview, July, 1872; and Proceed. Instit. Civil Engineers, 

 vol. xxxvii. 1874, p. 110, etc., plates viii. and ix. 



^ Geol. Mag. November, 1890. 



^ See also " Contemporary Review," April, 1890 ; and his " Lecture to the Royal 

 Institution," June 6, 1890. 



^ " Report of Proceed. General Meeting of the South Eastern Railway Company," 

 July 23, 1891, p. 10 ; and "Financial News," July 24, 1891. 



* "Proceed. Instit. Civil Engineers," vol. xxxvii. 1874, pp. 16 and 26 of the 

 separate paper. 



