SECTION C.—GEOLOGY. 
A CORRELATION OF STRUCTURES IN 
THE COALFIELDS OF THE MIDLAND 
PROVINCE 
ADDRESS BY 
PROF. WILLIAM GEORGE FEARNSIDES, F.RS., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
Tue effort called for in following rock outcrops over hilly country compels 
the field geologist to think in three dimensions, and, in mountain ground, 
whatever his first interest, he comes early to a stage when structure gets 
the lion’s share of his attention. The rougher the country, the more 
trouble is taken to interpret the implications of its surface geometry, until, 
having achieved a partial solution, the researcher can project his imagin- 
ings in depth and predict the locus of the outcrop in another place. In 
this lies the fascination of our science, and each hill district of Britain is a 
shrine to some enthusiast who would interpret the anatomy of our ancient 
alps. 
Lowland and coalfield country is less attractive, and it is because he 
must that the mining geologist and the official surveyor there collects his 
information. Without some knowledge of its solid geometry no geologist 
can evaluate a coalfield property, nor should the engineer advise how the 
development of mineral may proceed. The whole geometry of a coal 
seam is never known until its wealth is spent, but, pending complete 
solution, it is possible by stages to project from the fully known to the 
unknown ; and in the older coalfields, where mining records have been 
kept, there is such accumulation of local three-dimensional information 
as can never be made available in the best exposed of mountain ground. 
Mine plans are made on a scale so large that, for quick appreciation 
and interpretation as contributions to regional geology, their records must 
be reduced to the dimensions of a map. ‘Treated thus over great indus- 
trial districts, where hundreds of square miles of several coal seams have 
been wrought, they afford exact and documented evidence as well of 
lateral variation of original sedimentation as of the size and form of 
impressed structures. In detail such information is the stock-in-trade 
of mineral agents, but in bulk it is rarely considered except by consulting 
engineers and the maker of the plans. 
Coalfields are extensive, their folding broad, and only where relief is 
exceptional and the rocks diverse does regional structure leap tomeet theeye. 
Coal Measure rocks other than sandstone are soft and weather deeply, 
so that only where artificial excavations expose fresh material, or where, 
