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our system, and to endeavour to establish demarcations as clear as 

 our fellow-labourers in France have done for the deposits of this 

 age, by working out the whole extent of the crag, and the precise na- 

 ture of its upper limits : also by showing the relative ages of gravel 

 beds with existing species of shells, and the numerous lacustrine and 

 terrestrial accumulations which abound along our east coast, from 

 the north bank of the Humber to the mouth of the Thames. 



The most essential, however, of all our scientific wants is a perfect 

 history of the coal-fields; for, connected as these are with the ex- 

 istence of England as a manufacturing nation, the call for information 

 upon this point cannot be too frequently repeated, nor its importance 

 too warmly inculcated. 



Some addition to our knowledge of carboniferous tracts has re- 

 cently been made by that excellent geologist Mr. J. Phillips, in a 

 short Memoir upon the Ganister, or Lower Coal-field of Yorkshire, 

 a full account of which will shortly appear in the Second Volume on 

 the Geology of that county *. 



I hope soon to lay before you a succinct view of those unde- 

 scribed and thin fields of coal in Shropshire, which have been accu- 

 mulated in ancient bays, covering the edges of the grauwacke forma- 

 tions, or resting upon the old red sandstone and mountain limestone. 

 As these fields are carried under the great trough of northern 

 Salop and Cheshire, may we not reasonably infer, that at some future 

 day a vast emporium of deeply seated coal may be discovered and 

 worked beneath the new red sandstone of that district ? 



But to how many other parts of this island may we not apply simi- 

 lar speculations ? How many and how vast are these carboniferous 

 fields, with the true details of which we are entirely unacquainted ? 



If, Gentlemen, I specially invoke your continued exertions in this 

 department, it should be borne in mind that the results must essen- 

 tially benefit our fellow-creatures; and I am thereforeconfident that the 

 time is come, when, duly estimating our labours, the whole country 

 will proclaim, that " Geology is a pursuit of the deepest national im- 

 portance." With this feeling it is that our lists are already adorned 

 with some of the most honoured names in the land ; and the only 

 boon which we demand in return for our gratuitous efforts is, that the 

 landed proprietors of England will enrich our archives with sections 

 and illustrations of their several neighbourhoods. 



In thus adverting to the practical uses of geology, and in asserting 

 that our advances have been firmly secured, by patiently working out 

 the evidences offered by the fossil world ; we must at the same time 

 allow, that our progress has been occasionally checked by the pro- 

 mulgation of captivating but untenable theories. 



Persuaded as we are that there is no royal road to the truths we 

 are in search of, let us guard against hastily conceived speculations, 



* I am informed that Mr. E. Hall, of Manchester, has made an addition 

 to our local carboniferous geology, by the completion of a MS. map of South 

 Lancashire coal tract. 



