Hi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the direction and other pecnUarities of the currents of the ancient 

 sea which covered this area during the tertiary period, whether those 

 currents are due to tidal action, to the winds, or to other predisposing 

 causes ; and that with this knowledge of the ancient currents, we 

 may make out the physical geography of the coast lines of the ter- 

 tiary land and sea during the same epoch. The author infers, on 

 these grounds, that during the tertiary period there existed a wide 

 estuary of a large river running from west to east ; that the land 

 from which the river came must have been to the north, the west, 

 and south-west, while the estuary opened into a tidal sea towards the 

 east ; and that at the western part of the Isle of Wight area there 

 existed a considerable shoal. The author's observations evince much 

 close examination and ingenious deductions ; but I am of opinion 

 that we are not yet in a condition to adopt all the inferences he has 

 drawn from the structure of the sandy deposits, or fully to under- 

 stand the structure itself and the causes which may have occasioned 

 it. 'The subject is one which requires much more examination and 

 careful investigation of the various data, before we can venture to 

 pronounce positively on the phaenomena before us. 



To Mr. Godwin-Austen we have been indebted during the past 

 session for several valuable papers, in which interesting speculations 

 are combined with much careful observation. One of these papers 

 refers to a subject of such vast economical importance, should the 

 anticipated results of the author be in any degree confirmed, that I 

 should but ill perform my duties on this occasion were I not to 

 allude more particularly to the paper " On the probable exten- 

 sion of the Coal-Measures beneath the South-Eastern parts of 

 England." Startling as the proposition may at first appear to many, 

 that coal may possibly be found under the chalk districts of the 

 south-eastern parts of England, much of this surprise will disappear 

 when we consider in how close proximity to the chalk of the Boulon- 

 nais the Coal formations between St. Omer and Calais occur. Mr. 

 Godwin-Austen has directed much of his attention to the study of 

 the palaeozoic rocks south of the Channel, and it is from his observa- 

 tions respecting the relative position of the Carboniferous beds of the 

 north of France, between Boulogne and Calais, and the Cretaceous 

 beds which form the south-eastern prolongation of the axis of eleva- 

 tion of the Wealden districts in the S.E. of England, that he has 

 been led to the conclusions which form the subject of this commu- 

 nication. 



The author stated, after describing the physical and geographical 

 position of the various coal formations existing between the valley of 

 the Ruhr and the district of St. Omer and Calais, where coal has 

 been met with in boring for water, that the views he entertains re- 

 specting the extension of the Coal-measures in the south-eastern 

 parts of England depend on the correct restoration of the boundaries 

 of land and water areas in the palaeozoic periods. He remarked that 

 among the earliest rocks, as evidences of former terrestrial conditions, 

 it is not until we ascend as high as the upper palaeozoic deposits that 

 we meet with evidences of definite hydrographical areas, and that 



