Geologists^ Association. 187 



The Ballot for the Council and Officers was taken, and the fol- 

 lowing were duly elected for the ensuing year : — President : John 

 Evans, Esq., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents ; Robert Etheridge, Esq., 

 JP.E.S. ; E. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S. ; Sir Charles Lyell, 

 Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S. ; Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S. Secretaries : 

 David Forbes, Esq., F.R.S.; Rev. T. Wiltshire, M.A. Foreign 

 Secretary: Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. Treasurer: J. 

 Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S. Council: The Duke of Argyll, K.T., 

 D.C.L., F.R.S. ; H. Bauerman, Esq. ; Prof. G. Busk, F.R.S. ; J. F. 

 Campbell, Esq. ; Frederic Drew, Esq. ; Sir P. de M. G. Egerton, 

 Bart., M.P., F.R.S. ; R. Etheridge, Esq., F.R.S. ; John Evans, Esq., 

 F.R.S., F.S.A. ; David Forbes, Esq., F.R.S. ; Oapt. Douglas Galton, 

 C.B., F.R.S. ; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S.; J. Gwyn 

 Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S.; Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S. ; 

 C. J. A. Meyer, Esq. ; J. Carrick Moore, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. ; Joseph 

 Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S.; Prof. A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S.; Samuel 

 Sharp, Esq., F.S.A. ; Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; 

 Prof. J. Tennant, F.CS. ; W. Whitaker, Esq., B.A. ; Rev. T. Wilt- 

 shire, M.A., F.L.S. ; Henry Woodward, Esq., F.R.S. 



Geologists' Association. — February 6, 1874. — Henry Wood- 

 ward, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair.— 1. " On the 

 Probability of Finding Coal in the Eastern Counties." By John 

 Gunn, Esq., M.A,, F.G.S. 



This paper may be regarded as an application of a former paper, 

 "On the Dip of the Chalk," in order to prove the probability of 

 finding Coal in the Eastern Counties. Sections of wells at Harwich, 

 Camden Town, and Calais were added to those previously referred 

 to at Yarmouth and Norwich. Mr. Gunn observed that the objections 

 raised by the late Sir R. I. Murchison were satisfactorily disposed of 

 by Mr. Prestwich, who showed, in his Report on the Coal Commis- 

 sion, that there was no proof of any deterioration or dying out of 

 the measures, as stated by Sir Roderick ; and that Mr. Godwin- Austen, 

 in proof of their course along the valleys of the Thames and the 

 Kennet, relied upon the opinion now entertained by engineers, "that 

 surface features are guides to what long antecedentljr had taken place 

 below, and the reason adduced is that the original sets of disturb- 

 ances, which affected old Palaeozoic strata, have always been on the 

 line of subsequent disturbance, and are actual hinges, as it were, 

 upon which these rock masses have moved since, and these rocks 

 record these original physical lines in the disturbances which have 

 taken place since," and Mr. Godwin-Austen strongly expressed his 

 conviction, by affirming that " were I a Kentish or Essex landowner, 

 I should be very much disposed to sink along a line parallel to the 

 chalk escarpments of Kent, to the North-East of it." Mr. Gunn, in 

 deference to so high an authority, gave the preference to a boring on 

 the south of Essex, and proceeded next to build upon the above- 

 established facts the grounds on which he recommended another 

 boring at Hunstanton, or along the outcrop of the Kimmeridge Clay 



