Mr. Whitaker^s Address to the Geological Section. 471 



may know during our meeting ; it is certainly a success in the 

 matter of reaching the old rocks at a depth of less than 1,000 feet. 

 We should remember that every boring is almost certain to give us 

 some knowledge that may help in future work. 



There is a further point, however, to be taken into account. A 

 boring that may at first seem to be a failure, from striking beds 

 older than the Coal-measures, may some day turn out otherwise. 

 The coal-field along the borders of France and Belgium is sometimes 

 affected by powerful and peculiar disturbances, by faults of com- 

 paratively gentle inclination (far removed from the usual more or 

 less vertical displacements) which have thrown Coal-measures 

 beneath older beds in large tracts. This is no mere theory, though 

 advanced as such at first by some Continental geologists, who have 

 had the great satisfaction of seeing their theory adopted by practical 

 men, and proved to be true, much coal being worked below the 

 older beds that have been pushed above the Coal-measures by 

 overthrust faults. 



Our trial work, of course, does not yet lead us to consider such 

 disturbances as those alluded to. We have at first to assume a 

 normal succession of formations, and not to carry on explorations 

 in beds that can be proved to be older than the Coal-measures ; but 

 the time may come when it will be otherwise. 



Another matter to which attention has been drawn by our foreign 

 friends is an apparent general persistence of disturbances along 

 certain lines, or, in other words, the recurrence of disturbances in 

 newer beds in those parts where earlier movements had affected 

 older beds ; so that, reasoning backward, where we see marked signs 

 of disturbance for long distances in beds at or near the surface, there 

 we may expect to find pre-existing disturbances of the older beds 

 beneath. This, however, is a somewhat controversial question, and 

 much remains to be done on it ; but should it be proved as a general 

 rule it may have much eff'ect on our underground coal. 



Finally, the question of the possibility of finding and of working 

 coal in various parts of South-eastern England is not merely of 

 local interest; it is of national imjoortance. The time must come 

 when the coal-fields that we have worked for years will be more 

 or less exhausted, and we ought certainly to look out ahead for 

 others, so as to be i-eady for the lessening yield of those that have 

 served us so well. It is on our coal that our national prosperity 

 largel}', one may say chiefly, depends, and, as far as we can see, will 

 depend. Let us not neglect any of the bounteous gifts of nature, 

 but let us show rather that we are ready to search for the treasures 

 that may be hidden under our feet, and the finding of which will 

 result in the continued welfare of our native land. 



