6 Life of R. A. C. Qodtcin-Auden. 



the paper, which really deals with the physical geography of the 

 European area at many past epochs. 



The remarks on the Palaeozoic areas are of especial interest at the 

 present daj-, for the grouping adopted by Mr, Austen is one which 

 connects the Devonian or Eifelian with the Upper Silurian, and the 

 Old Red Sandstone with the Carboniferous Series. He remarks that 

 " the limits of the lacustrine Old Eed Sandstone of the Welsh area 

 are tolerably well defined ; they hardly extended as far north as 

 ordinary geological maps now carry that group, inasmuch as the 

 red beds which underlie the coal-measures of Coalbrook Dale belong 

 to the uppermost Ludlow beds, with Lingula cornea, etc." 



As Dr. A. Geikie observes, " The first attempt to point out the 

 distinction between the typical old Red Sandstone areas and those 

 where rocks of the Devonshire type occurred was made by Mr. 



Godwin-Austen in his very suggestive memoir [which] 



opened up a new era in the investigation of the history of the Old 

 Red Sandstone." ^ 



In a paper read before the British Association in 1870, Mr. Austen 

 suggests that the Devonian system may be a triplex group — partly 

 Upper Silurian, partly Devonian proper (Eifelian). and partly 

 Carboniferous, 



In the preface to his " Contributions to the Physical History of the 

 British Isles" (1882), Prof. Hull remarks, "Amongst those to 

 whom I am indebted for light thrown on the internal structure of 

 the British Isles, there is one name which takes unquestioned pre- 

 cedence — that of Mr. E. Godwin-Austen — in whose elaborate essay, 

 published in 1856 by the Geological Society of London, many of the 

 problems since elucidated by experiment were investigated and 

 solved. In reperusing that essay by the light of subsequent dis- 

 coveries, I have been profoundly impressed by the knowledge of 

 details which its author evinces regarding the geological structure of 

 the region of which he treats, and the masterly manner in which, by 

 the handling of these details, he has enabled us to understand the 

 physical features of Western Europe in past times. I feel persuaded 

 that that essay will ever be considered a masterpiece of geological 

 induction," 



Tbe results of the deep borings at Kentish Town, Harwich, and 

 more recently in other places in the South-east of England, have 

 verified the conclusion that Palseozoic rocks would be reached by 

 such borings in this area ; but it yet remains to be proved whether 

 productive Coal-measures are also represented,^ 



1 Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. xxviii. p. 346. 



^ It is noted in the Athenceum (Nov. 29, 1884), that Mr. Austen's views on this 

 subject had been to some extent foreshadowed by De la Beche : the only passage 

 bearing on the subject, which we have come across in De la Beche's writings, is that 

 in Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. i. 1846, p. 214. He says, "From the movement of the 

 older rocks many a mass of Coal-measures may be buried beneath the Oolites and 

 Cretaceous rocks on the east, the remains of a great sheet of these accumulations, 

 connecting the districts we have noticed, with those of Central England and of 

 Belgium, rolled about and partially denuded prior to the deposit of the New Eed 

 Sandstone." 



