412 Notices of Memoirs — Prof. (r. Lambert — 



The nodule was found at Instow, in one of the clayey beds travers- 

 ing the Carboniferous grits, which here occupy a nearly vertical 

 position. I have often worked in the same locality, and during the 

 last ten years have obtained a great number of similar nodules ; but, 

 so far, had never known them to contain any other fossils besides 

 Goniatites, Streptorliynclius crenistria, Spiriferce, and plant-remains. 

 However, on a careful re-examination of these specimens, I detected 

 scales belonging to the same fish upon four different fragments of 

 rock, and on removing more of the stone, found beneath the surface 

 scales of two other species. 



A continuation of the search will, no doubt, afford further results, 

 and I trust will enable me to describe and figure these new fossils. 



♦ 



I. — NouvEAU Bassin Houiller decouvert dans le Limbourg 



HOLLANDAIS. [On A NEW COAL-FIELD IN DuTCH LiMBURG.]— A 



privately printed Eeport, by Prof. G. Lambert, of Louvain, dated 

 March, 1876. Two Maps and a Plate of Sections. Abstracted 

 and Translated by G. A. Lebour, F.G.S. London and Belgium. 



" TN the early days of Coal-mining in Europe those portions only 

 JL of the Coal-measures were made use of which cropped out at 

 the surface, or were not overlain by more recent formations. As by 

 degrees these portions have become exhausted, the workings have 

 been extended beneath the newer rocks. 



" It is thus that in Westphalia, Belgium, Northern France, and 

 the North of England, the Coal area worked or known is now ten 

 times what it was fifty years ago. 



" Especially of recent years has the increase in the price of coal 

 given rise to the most active and successful researches and explora- 

 tions. 



" Hence the formation of a great Coal-mining centre in the De- 

 partment of the Pas-de-Calais, in France. Hence also the splendid 

 discoveries which have been made in the northern part of the Ruhr 

 basin. In this basin, towards the north, a new Coal-bearing zone 

 has been determined and entered upon, not less than 15 kilometres 

 in breadth, and to which no northern limit has yet been found. On 

 the contrary, it appears as if the thickness and regularity of the 

 seams increased as the workings gradually advance in that direction.^ 



" The increase in thickness towards the north of the beds over- 

 lying the Coal-measures delays the establishment of collieries in this 

 new Coal-field. 



'• Fortunately, these beds belong almost exclusively to the Lower 

 Cretaceous, and consist of unctuous clayey marls, which hold very 

 little water, are easily worked, and do not fall in ; so that pits five 

 metres in diameter can be sunk to the Coal-measures, i.e. 200 or 300 

 metres in depth, at less cost than has been incurred for several 



^ At present the breadth of this Coal-basin already proved, measured along the 

 meridian passing through Bochum, is of about 50 kilometres. 



