SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



15 inches thick. The bore-hole was then reduced 

 to 9 inches, and eventually to 4 inches, and 

 by the aid of the diamond-boring system the 

 coal measures were pierced for i,o6S feet. Fourteen 

 seams of coal were found with an aggregate 

 thickness of 23V feet, and of these eight might be 

 regarded as workable, being ii feet or more thick, 

 with a combined thickness of 193 feet. The last 

 seam encountered was the thickest, measuring 

 4 feet and lying 2.222 feet from the surface. As 

 far as can be judged by the samples brought up by 

 the borer, the coal is of excellent quality, bright, 

 clean and bituminous, and standing well when 

 tested against the best productions of our present 

 coalfields. The beds that have thus been investi- 

 gated appear on pala=ontolegical grounds to belong 

 to the upper part of the middle coal measures, and 

 therefore there is every probability that profitable 

 beds of coal will be met with still lower down 

 The depth is by no means excessive, for most of 

 the important coalfields of Britain are worked to a 

 depth of 2.000 feet to 3,000 feet, and in Belgium to 

 as much as 3.900 feet. Another important factor 

 contributing to the probable success of the Dover 

 coalfield is the circumstance that the coal 

 measures are here practically horizontal throughout, 

 which apparently indicates that the boring has 

 pierced the middle of the basin, and that no great 

 fear need be entertained of the continuity of the 

 beds being broken by great dislocations or local 

 disturbances. 



With prospects such as these, the "Kent Coal 

 Syndicate" was soon foimed to work the venture, 

 and acquired working rights under nearly 7,000 

 acres, adjacent to the boring. Two shafts are now 

 being sunk, twenty feet and seventeen feet in 

 diameter, one of uhich has already been carried to 

 a depth of over 360 feet, or one-third of the way 

 down to the first coal seam ; and the other is not 

 far behind it, so that in the opinion of those who 

 are most sanguine, Kent coal will be in the market 

 before the end of the year. The promoters 

 estimate that the Dover colliery alone, with ils 

 present working rights over 7,000 acres only, will 

 be able, at a low estimate, lo produce a million 

 ■. year for more than three-quarters of a 

 century. 



Hut although the result of the Dover boring has 



iheeiiMencc of coal under a part ol Kent, 



not give 11. the area of the coal field, nor 



the direction in v. huh it extend'., and many 



borings will have to be undertaken befori 'r 



e information is forthcoming on these point-. 



Arrangements are l<cing made for a Ml 



l/oring* in lilel the Kent Coalfields 



ate. the Mid Kent Coal Syndicate, and 



the f.' -i ' ■ mpati a thai the 



lion will doubl before 



If the Dover coalfield follows the same line as 

 that of north-east France, i.e. a general north-west 

 direction, we should expect to find it extending in 

 the direction of Canterbury and Chatham, but it is 

 quite possible that the line of coal-measures soon 

 takes a more westerly direction, by Ashford and 

 Maidstone, and then by Sevenoaks, Guildford, 

 Basingstoke and Devizes to Bath. This is the 

 view taken by most of our geological experts, but 

 the 160 miles between Dover and Bristol have still 

 to be explored ; the coal basins, if they exist, are 

 unlikely to be more than ten miles wide at the 

 most, and in all probability much less ; their direc- 

 tion is probably more or less sinuous, so that 

 altogether there is still a considerable amount of 

 uncertainty as to the mineral wealth of our south- 

 eastern counties, and we must not be disappointed 

 if many of the trial borings fail to reveal it. The 

 labour and money expended on such will not be 

 thrown away ; each unsuccessful one will increase 

 our knowledge of the composition of the palaeozoic 

 floor below us, and thus render the chances of 

 future success more assured. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of 

 this paper, Mr. W. Watts pointed out that Mr. 

 Godwin-Austen founded his theory on the warping 

 of the earth's crust and the effect it had of throw- 

 ing the strata into basins. The idea was not 

 entertained seriously at first, but French observers 

 had taken it up, and they had now seen the results 

 at Dover. 



Professor Seeley said he had some hesitation in 

 speaking on so hypothetical a matter as the occur- 

 rence of coal in this part of England, and he 

 pointed out that the bend in the strata in past 

 ages might have been accompanied by the process 

 of denudation, so that they could not speak with 

 any certainty. lie thought the vicinity of Ton- 

 bridge, according to the geological formation, was 

 too far south. He described how the beds of rock 

 thinned off to the north of Tunbridge Wells. They 

 would fill up the area, and be thinner towards a 

 centre under London, which afterwards became 

 bent into a trough. Consequently there was a 

 possibility that the coal basin might be indicated 

 by the thinning off of the strata in the manner 

 shown. The trough, so to speak, might have been 

 denuded before any of these rocks on which 

 Tllllbridge Wells is situated had been laid down 

 upon it The whole problem was to seek where 

 1,- in oi strata bad gol so thin as to allow 

 the coal basins below to be reached. Thai was 

 the real problem, and examining the structure at 



Weald, towards Canterbury and Maid. lone, they 



found an angular bend in the great oval form ol 

 the Weald, where the < hall; roi ks bend northwards. 

 Theoretically the valley ol the Medway might be 

 Indicated as lying along the line oi strata which 



li el I.e. 11 lelei I'd lo. 



