32 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



COAL IN KENT. 

 By H. E. Turner, B.A.* 



HPHE present month has seen the successful 

 flotation of the third company that has been 

 formed with the object of exploring the county of 

 Kent for the mineral wealth that is supposed to 

 be buried deep below the surface. The capital of 

 ^250,000 required by the promotors of the " Kent 

 Coal Exploration Company " has been subscribed 

 three times over in two or three days. Considering 

 that this latest venture is a purely speculative one, 

 inasmuch as no coal has actually been discovered 

 within the area of its proposed operations, the 

 result of the Company's appeal for funds must be 

 regarded as an eloquent testimony to the con- 

 fidence now reposed in the deductions of geologists. 

 Disparaging allusions have often been made to 

 geology as the most speculative of all the sciences, 

 and to a certain extent it may be open to that 

 reproach. In its practical application to mining, 

 however, geology has rendered services that no 

 one who is qualified to express an opinion can fail 

 to appreciate. Many a fortune has been made by 

 following its guidance, and many a one lost by 

 neglect of its teachings, while vast stores of 

 mineral wealth have been rendered available that 

 would otherwise have remained hidden and 

 unknown. 



The question of the existence of coal under our 

 south-eastern counties is a most momentous one. 

 It touches us as a nation whose unparalleled 

 advance in wealth during the present century has 

 been due, in no small measure, to those bountiful 

 supplies of coal and iron which have given us our 

 manufacturing supremacy. Bountiful, it is true — 

 but not inexhaustible. Our present coalfields 

 have an enormous output, but they have to meet 

 an ever-increasing demand ; their boundaries may 

 be far wider than we anticipate, but they must 

 have a limit. Whether our coal supply is sufficient 

 to last 275 or 1,275 years longer — to take the 

 divergent opinions expressed in the report of the 

 Coal Commission of 1871 — the fact remains that 

 we are living, not upon our interest, but upon our 

 capital. It behoves us, therefore, as the stewards 

 of posterity, to lose no opportunity of renderiug 

 available those hidden supplies of wealth that 

 doubtless exist, and thus to provide a measure 

 of compensation for our present lavish expenditure. 

 However pressing the claims of posterity, they do 

 not appeal to us with the same force as present 

 interests, and so this coal question probably 

 touches us still more closely as inhabitants of a 



• Abstract of a paper read before the South-Eastern 

 Union of Scientific Societies at Tunbridge Wells, May 

 22nd, 1897. 



district which at present is further removed than 

 any other from our great centres of supply. Our 

 solicitude for the comfort and prosperity of 

 generations yet unborn must necessarily be of a 

 somewhat platonic character, whereas our peace of 

 mind is apt to vary inversely as the demands upon 

 our pockets. A reduction in the price of coal by 

 one third or one fourth would doubtless be viewed 

 with equanimity by most householders in this part 

 of the country, if not by the railway companies 

 north of the Thames. Except in the unlikely 

 event of a monopoly, such a result would probably 

 accrue from the establishment of successful 

 collieries in our southern counties. 



It is not from the side of political economy or 

 individual finance that I wish to view this question, 

 but I feel a very special interest in the realization 

 of a bold theory propounded by an eminent 

 geologist forty years ago, to most minds based on 

 very slender evidence, often ridiculed, but now 

 triumphantly vindicated. Probably few of us 

 have had the time, the opportunity, or the inclina- 

 tion to study this theory, and to form our own 

 opinions upon it. Other branches of science may 

 have claimed our attention, and so a brief resume 

 of the arguments and course of events that have 

 led to the discovery of coal in Kent, with all its 

 contingent possibilities, may not prove unwelcome. 



It would be well, however, to make a few 

 preliminary remarks respecting the geological 

 position of coal, and its mode of occurrence in 

 what are known as " coal basins." It is well 

 known that this important mineral is practically 

 confined to the geological formation termed the 

 "coal measures" which form the upper division 

 of the Carboniferous system. The two other 

 principal divisions in descending order are the 

 millstone grit, a shallow water deposit varying 

 from 500 to 1,000 feet in thickness, and the carboni- 

 ferous limestone, formed as a rule in deeper water, 

 and from 500 to 2,500 feet thick. The whole 

 system is of vast antiquity, belonging as it does 

 to the group of ancient sedimentary rocks 

 known as the palaeozoic or primary, of which, 

 however, it is one of the most recent members. 

 The coal measures are sometimes of enormous 

 thickness — from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. For 

 instance, in the South Wales coalfield, the 

 coal is being distributed in seams more or less 

 throughout, but these form a very insignificant 

 proportion of the whole, being often separated 

 by massive beds of sandstone, shale and clay. The 

 most profitable seams occur in the upper and 

 middle part of the coal measures. The thickest 



