372 Reports and Proceedings — 



to a remarkable section at Aiichy-au-Bois, in the western extremity 

 of the Valenciennes coal-field, which is particularly interestincr 

 from its furnishing evidence that the Hardinghen coal-field, between 

 Calais and Boulogne, is a prolongation of that of Valenciennes, and 

 because the same strike and a prolongation of the same great fault 

 observed at Auchy-au-Bois through Hardinghen would carry the 

 southern boundary of any coal-field in the south-east of England just 

 south of Maidstone, thence passing a little north of London. Hence 

 it is in the district north of London that there is most probability 

 of the discovery of the Carboniferous strata. The extent of country 

 in which shafts could be sunk to the Palaeozoic strata will, however, 

 be limited by the presence of the water-bearing Lower Grreensand, 

 which probably reaches close to London in the south, reappears in 

 Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, 30 or 40 miles north of London, 

 and probably extends some distance towards the city under the 

 Chalk hills of those counties and Hertfordshire. 



The nature of the representative of the Lower Greensand in the 

 boring, and the characters of the fossils contained in it, lead the 

 author to the conclusion that in it we have a deposit produced near 

 the shore of the Neocomian sea, here probably consisting of cliifs of 

 Devonian (or Carboniferous) rock. From these cliffs the calcareous 

 material which here replaces the usual loose sands of the Lower 

 Greensand was perhaps derived by the agency of springs ; and the 

 shore-line itself must be situated between the south end of Totten- 

 ham Court Eoad and the Kentish Town boring. The sandy beds of 

 the Lower Greensand will probably be found to set in at no great 

 distance to the southward, presenting the conditions necessary for 

 storing and transmitting underground waters. A test boring made 

 by Mr. H. Bingham Mildmay at Shoreham Place, about 5 miles from 

 Sevenoaks, and in which the Lower Greensand was met with at 

 about the estimated depth (450 feet) and furnished a supply of 

 water, seems to confirm these views. 



2. " Notes on the Palfeontology and some of the Physical Con- 

 ditions of the Meux's Well Deposits." By Charles Moore, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author remarks that the various deep well-borings around 

 London have abundantly proved the correctness of Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen's inference that the Paleozoic axis of the Mendips is con- 

 tinued beneath the Secondary rocks of the south-eastern counties. 

 Mr. Moore has himself shown that where these Paleeozoic rocks 

 finally disappear under the Secondary strata, there are found at 

 the unconformable junction of the two formations a set of deposits 

 indicating the existence of very peculiar phj'sical conditions, and con- 

 taining an admixture of fossils from very different geological horizons. 

 Hence he was led to inquire whether any trace of similar abnormal 

 deposits might be found in the deep well-borings of London. 



With this view he set to work at washing some of the materials 

 supplied to him from the Meux's well, and studying the minute and 

 often microscopic organisms thus obtained. 



The Chalk was not particularly examined; but from a single 

 small sample of Upper Greensand he obtained numerous Foramini- 

 fera and Entomostraca, including one Cyprid new to science. 



