504 On the Prospects of Coal South of the Mendips. 



It should, however, be borne in mind, that the Coal-measures of 

 Somersetshire possess three divisions, an upper and lower productive 

 series, separated by a middle one, the Pennant Grit, which is from 

 2,000 to 3,000 feet in thickness, and contains but two or three 

 seams of coal. 



The opinion has been expressed by Mr. Prestwich and Mr. 

 Etheridge^ that possibly to the south of the Mendips the Coal- 

 measures might assume the Devonian type of Culm-measures. This 

 goes to the heart of the Devonian question, for if we regard the 

 Culm-measures as representing the true Coal-measures, Professor 

 Jukes's classification must be accepted. For it is acknowledged that 

 the boundary line between the Culm-measures and Upper Devonian 

 of North Devon is so gradual that it is hard to separate the two ; and 

 therefore the latter must represent the underlying Carboniferous 

 formations. Be this as it may, we cannot consider this great and 

 difficult question as by any means finally settled at present, and we 

 must look forward to the careful working out of the area by the 

 Geological Survey as the only way in which it will be definitely 

 solved. We do not, however, see any reason to suppose a great 

 change in the Carboniferous strata immediately south of the Mendips, 

 for at Cannington Park we have the Mountain Limestone presenting 

 its ordinary features, as they are so well displayed in the correspond- 

 ing beds at Clifton, on the Mendip Hills, and in South Wales. 



The Eeport of the Eoyal Coal Commission is one of the most re- 

 markable works of this or any other age or country. When the two 

 remaining volumes are published, the whole will be an enduring 

 monument to the honour of its authors, who seem to have spared 

 neither time nor labour in the preparation of a mass of information 

 relating to the Coal in the United Kingdom, such as has never been 

 brought together before, and which will every day become of in- 

 creasing value to all persons interested in this most important branch 

 of our industrial resources. The country at large is under a great 

 debt of obligation to the Commissioners, who, in the midst of public 

 or private business, have given their best energies, without fee or 

 reward, to a subject which most persons would consider sufficiently 

 onerous in itself, apart from other duties. 



This is especially noteworthy with regard to the contributions of 

 Messrs. Eamsay, Prestwich, and Hunt, whose labours can scarcely 

 be appreciated at their fullest extent except by those persons who 

 have been engaged in inquiries of a similar nature. 



The results arrived at by the Commissioners show that the public 

 fears as to the immediately approaching exhaustion of the available 

 coal were altogether groundless, and they establish the fact that the 

 country possesses a supply of coal sufficient for the wants of the 

 nation for a long period, equal to about three hundred years. In the 

 face of that conclusion the Commissioners, as a body, have scarcely 

 felt themselves justified in recommending that experimental borings 

 should be made for the purpose of testing the existence of coal in 

 areas where its occurrence has only been hypothetically inferred. 

 ^ Eeport of Coal Commission, vol. i., pp. 147, 163. 



