502 Froft'ssor W. Boyd Laiclclns—The 8.E. Coalfield. 



witli a thin stratum of Clay-witlj-Flints. It was begun at the close 

 of 1897, and has at the present time pierced the strata to a deplh 

 of 1,773 feet 7 inches. 



It is being carried out under the able superintendence of Mr. Jamea 

 Kewton, resident engineer, with the calyx drill, and the occasional 

 use of a diamond crown for the lower and harder rocks. The 

 result in both cases is a solid core. The section is as follows : — 



EOPERSOLE, 400 O.D. 





Thickness. 



Depth. 







ft. 



in. 



ft. 



in. 





/^ Upper Chalk 



480 







480 









1 Middle Chalk 



118 







598 







Upper Cretaceous (9c 



3 feet) \ J ,ower Grey Chalk . . . 



220 







818 









1 Glaiiconitic Marl 



16 







834 









\ Gault 



119 







953 







Neocomian (72 feet) .. 



( Lower Greensand 

 • ••• \ Atherfield Clay 



51 



21 





 



1,004 

 1,025 





 





Purbeck-WealdsB Beds 



65 







1,080 









I Kimmeridge Clay (?) ... 



10 







1,090 







Oolitic (473 feet) 



1 Corallian 



• *" j Oxfordian, CalloTian ... 



157 

 142 





 



1,247 

 1,389 













\ Batlionian 



164 







1,553 







LiASSic (27 ft. 9in.) .. 



1 Upper Lias 



■ ••• \ Middle Lias 



3 



24 





 9 



1,556 

 1,580 





 9 





' Shales and Underclays 



69 



3 



1,650 









First Coal 







9 



1,660 



9 



Coal-measures (192ft. 



, „ . V Shales aad Underclays 

 ^^^'^■)\ Second Coal ... ... 



60 

 



6 

 6 



1,701 

 1,701 



3 



9 





Shales and Underclays 

 ^ Micaceous Sandstones... 



22 



3 



1,724 









49 



7 



1,773 



7 



The Coal - measures contain the usual Carboniferous plants — 

 Sigillm-in, Zepidodendron, and ferns, and the usual Stigmarian roots 

 and rootlets, and, like those which we struck in the borehole at 

 Dover, are probably horizontal. The coal is bright and blazing, 

 and breaks up into little cubes, but slightly deformed by pressure 

 into the lozenge-shape. In this respect it agrees with the coals of 

 Dover, and like them shows no sign of crushing. The horizontality 

 of the beds in both these cases may be accounted for by the boreholes 

 happening to strike the bottom of a Carboniferous synclinal fold. 

 This conclusion, viewed in the light of the coalfields of France and 

 Belgium, on the one hand, and of Somerset on the other, is more 

 probable than the view that they extend horizontally over a very 

 large area. 



It is strengthened by the fact that the rocks, probably Devonian, 

 struck at the bottom of the borehole at Brabourne, some few miles 

 to the west, are inclined at a high angle. They hei-e are a portion 

 of an anticline which is probably related to the Coal-measures above 

 them, as the Devonian axis of the Mendip Hills is related to the 

 syncline of the Somerset Coalfield. 



In my opinion the Coal-measures of Eopersole are a portion of 

 the same series as those at Dover. Here, as at Dover, the question 

 of seams of coal resolves itself probably into a question of sinking 



