494 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 42. 



evidence, but in the rest this support is 

 wanting. The general result is to prove 

 that over an area not less than 86 miles 

 from northwest to southeast older rocks 

 almost certainly occur everywhere at a dis- 

 tance of not more than 1600 feet from the 

 surface. 



The only boring in eastern England 

 which has struck productive Coal Measures 

 is that at Dover, where evidence from the 

 Continent was at hand to aid in fixing the 

 exact position for the trial locality, but two 

 or three others have struck Carboniferous 

 rocks at a horizon below that at which 

 workable coals are usually found, thus 

 proving that there are Carboniferous rocks 

 in the eastern counties, and showing that 

 there is every likelihood of eventually meet- 

 ing with productive measures if exploration 

 is persisted in. The Stutton experimental 

 boring, on which the President read an- 

 other paper in the course of the meeting, 

 after passing through 1000 feet of Neozoic 

 rock had struck on Palaeozoic rock and was 

 being continued through it in the hope that 

 some satisfactory evidence of the age of the 

 latter rock would be forthcoming. It had 

 then reached the depth of 1350 feet and the 

 lithological character of the rock resembled 

 Carboniferous or Ordovician shale. The 

 section of the bore hole is given below : 



Feet. 



Drift (River Gravel) 16 



London Clay and Eeading Beds 54 



Upper and Middle Chalk 720 



Lower Chalk, with verj' glauconitic 

 marl at the base (almost a green 



sandstone) 154-^ 



Gault 'i^ 



PaliBozoie Rock' with a high dip. 



In conclusion Mr. Whitaker stated that, 

 even if it was necessarj' to abandon the 

 present experiment, it was intended to 

 make one or possiblj^ two more trials, so as 

 to have a fair chance of really settling the 



question of the occurrence of coal in East 

 Anglia. Taking up the question thus 

 prominently brought forward bj^ the Presi- 

 dent, Mr. Harmer advocated that the sys- 

 tematic survey of deep-seated rocks by 

 means of borings should become one of the 

 duties of the Geological Survey. Antici- 

 pating that valuable economic discoveries 

 of coal, water, iron and other products were 

 only a question of time, he stated that the 

 starting of new industries in agricultural 

 districts, the appreciation in the value of 

 land, and if necessary the imposition of a 

 royalty on minerals worked beyond a cer- 

 tain depth, would far more than pay the 

 expenses of such systematic work, whilst, 

 under the present state of the law, no jjriv- 

 ate individual cared to undertake deep ex- 

 ploration, because his very success would 

 only bring him into competition with those 

 who would profit bj^ his discoveries without 

 sharing his risks. 



Mr. Whitaker likewise contributed to the 

 Section a paper on deep wells in Suffolk ; 

 six of these penetrate the Tertiary rocks 

 and reach the chalk. 



A paper of very great importance was 

 that by Mr. Joseph Francis on methods for 

 determining the direction of dip in strata 

 at the bottom of deep borings, methods 

 which have proved quite successful at 

 depths of 1 ,000 feet and might be applied 

 to almost any depth. The author had car- 

 ried out his experiments at the borings at 

 Ware and Turn ford, and, after abandoning 

 plans dependent on fastening a compass 

 needle on the top of the core, he fell back 

 on the method of lowering the rods with the 

 utmost care to prevent twisting, and check- 

 ing the result by equally careful raising and 

 the lifting of wax moulds of the top of the 

 core. The crown of the boring-tool was 

 furnished interiorly with three sharp steel 

 points so arranged as to give a line in a 

 known direction; these points on descend- 

 ing ruled three lines on the side of the core 



