Mr. F. Forster's Observations on the South Welsh Coal Basin. 83 



this paper has been given by Messrs. Buckland and Conybeare, in 

 their Observations on the south-western Coal Dictricts of England, pub- 

 lished in the 1st vol. of the Geological Transactions^ second series ; and 

 considering the great interest attached to Owen's paper, as being the 

 earliest known atttempt to trace through an extensive district the con- 

 nection and continuity of different strata, I cannot, perhaps, do better 

 than copy verbatim Messrs. Buckland and Conybeare's observations 

 concerning it. 



" The earliest document in which any material information, bearing 

 on the south-western Coal district, is to be found, is an Essay on the 

 History of Pembrokeshir^e, left in manuscript. Anno 1570, by George 

 Owen, of Henllys, in that county, but not published until the year 

 1796, when it appeared in the Cambrian Register. This Essay of Owen 

 is a work of the highest interest, as being the earliest example extant, 

 in any language, of what can properly be called geological investiga- 

 tion. About a century before this period, indeed, the attention of se- 

 veral Italian writers had been directed to the organic remains of the 

 Sub-Appenine districts, which lie scattered in such quantity and pre- 

 servation as not to have escaped the notice of the poets of classical an- 

 tiquity. It was the single fact, however, of the occurrence of marine 

 remains in inland situations that those writers observed ; and with the 

 single exception of George Agricola, who about the year 1550, in his 

 Treatise de Re Metallicd, described the more obvious phenomena of 

 metallic veins, no writer until the time of Owen appears to have studied 

 the nature and position of the mineral masses which constitute the crust 

 of the globe. 



" Owen describes the extent and general features of the mountain 

 chains of Pembrokeshire, and the course of the rivers to which they 

 give rise, with an accuracy and spirit which it would be difficult to 

 equal. But, what chiefly distinguishes his memoir is, the observation 

 that the mineral masses, constituting the earth's surface, are not thrown 

 together promiscuously, but are arranged in a regular order, and in con- 

 tinuous lines over extensive districts ; an observation which forms the 

 great basis of all scientific geological investigation. Owen verifies this 



