SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



191 



beds, have been brought to light by the labours 

 of Professors Riicker and Thorpe, who have made 

 magnetic surveys in various parts of the kingdom. 

 Where there are masses of basaltic or similar rocks 

 containing a large proportion of iron, the needle 

 would naturally be seriously deflected ; but when 

 this phenomenon happened in districts where no 

 such rocks were known to exist, and where the 

 surface formations consisted of Tertiaries, or 

 Secondary beds, such as Chalk, there seemed to be 

 no other explanation 

 than that there were 

 some deep-seated 

 ferruginous rocks 

 further down, about 

 which we possessed 

 no knowledge. In 

 speaking before the 

 Society of Arts, of 

 the magnetic ex- 

 amination of a region 

 in the south of 

 England, Mr. W. 

 Whitaker, M.A., 

 F.R.S , said that 

 '• the compass needle 

 is drawn to a line 

 which runs along 

 the valley of the 

 Thames to Reading 

 and passes thence to 

 South Wales, and 

 possibly even to the 

 South of Ireland. 

 The most powerful 

 effect was between 

 Reading and Wind- 

 sor," from which 

 neighbourhood there 

 were three secondary 

 lines of disturbance, 

 one southward to 

 Chichester being the 

 most clearly marked, 

 is 

 deduced that Chi- 

 chester may be at 

 the southern end of 



one of the north and viulh cross. lines of uprise 

 of the more ancient Palaeozoic rocks, whilst 

 Heading »• 1 are at the northen 



The last named two plao.-i being on the line 

 from the Pa listrict 



itself should be severely lei alone by would be 1 oal 

 ilgbl \f. made to find 

 coal not less than, say, some fifteen mild 

 • west of it. 

 It ■'■ number of 



■m\- that . . 1 levonian n,< ka 



NSL'kOPTBRIS RAVINKHVIS. 



From Upper Coal Measures at Kadsiock 



having been found beneath London, there is but 

 the slightest likelihood of coal being found 

 around the metropolis. Either east or west of 

 London a future coal-field may be discovered. 

 Beneath London there is evidently an uprise of 

 Pre-Carboniferous rocks, constituting a surface 

 formed of the denuded edges of such rocks which 

 had been brought up to this Palaeozoic surface by 

 a series of crumplings, taking place prior to the 

 Secondary strata being laid down. This uprise of 

 older rocks would 

 be one of many 

 which may occur at 

 intervals along the 

 whole length from 

 Dover to the coal- 

 fields of the West of 

 England : the strike 

 of such uprises 

 being, roughly 

 speaking, at right 

 angles to the main 

 axis, i.e. north and 

 south. 



The rise of old 

 rocks at Ware, in 

 Hertfordshire, has 

 been already referred 

 to, as also to the 

 trough which must 

 then succeed in a 

 northerly direction. 

 Between Ware and 

 the coast of Essex 

 is an area to which 

 a good deal of geo- 

 logical prominence 

 has been given re- 

 cently, owing to the 

 labours of the East- 

 ern Counties Coal- 

 Boring Association. 

 At Harwich some 

 rocks had been bored 

 into at a depth of 

 1,029 feet, which are 

 considered to be 

 either Lower Car- 

 boniferousor I 're-Carboniferous, and the efforts 

 of the Association have been directed towards 

 ascertaining by exploration whether Coal Measures 

 ■ an be met with at other points on the north 

 idi <<i the Thames. Interesting results have 

 been obtained, although the Measures have 

 not yet been bit upon, At Weeley, in Essex, 



I i' Carl Iferous rocks were reached at 



feet, and al Stutton a very similar rock 

 bored n' 1 " al i.tifq feet, which, however, 



In 1 .!• ii • .1 ic the abandonmenl oi the boring 



