1855.] PRESTWICH BORING AT KENTISH TOWN. 9 



by 42 feet of alternating beds of very hard light grey and red sand- 

 stones, sometimes concretionary and calcareous, and of argillaceous 

 reddish sands. Then by thick beds of red clay, with subordinate 

 seams of micaceous red and light green sandstones and of reddish 

 argillaceous sands, to a further thickness of 74 feet ; ending at a 

 depth of 1302 feet in a hard micaceous light-coloured sandstone*. 



The only spring of water met with beneath the Gault was in the 

 thin sand and pebble bed, No. 40. A rise took place in the water- 

 level of the well of 3 feet when this bed was first reached, but it was 

 not maintained. 



The bore-hole, which commenced with a diameter of 1 2 inches, 

 was first reduced to 10, and then to 8 inches. It is tubed through 

 the chalk, gault, and the first 60 feet of the red beds, but the last 

 portion of 1 28 feet is not yet tubed. 



The result of this important work is very unexpected, and presents 

 great geological difficulties. It raises a question of much interest both 

 in a scientific and practical point of view, and it will require further 

 careful inquiry and observation to enable us to determine to what 

 series these red clays and sandstones may belong, and thus estimate 

 whether or not there is a probability of meeting with water- 

 bearing strata at a yet greater depth. Do these red beds form an ex- 

 ceptional condition of the base of the Gault ? Are they local beds of 

 the Lower Greensand ? Do they belong to the mottled clays and sand- 

 stones of the Wealden ? Or are they to be placed with the New Red 

 Sandstone ? On the first three suppositions beds of water-bearing 

 sands may yet occur ; on the last, however, the chance of finding 

 water would be more doubtful, although even then not altogether im- 

 possible. The Lower Greensand crops out with so much regularity 

 both to the north and south of London, and skirts the Gault so 

 continuously, that from a surface-examination of the ground there 

 could be no apparent reason for supposing that the same deposit was 

 not continuous underground and would be met with beneath Lon- 

 don. I must confess that I never contemplated the probability of 

 any break in the order of superposition ; but, although it may prove 

 that my anticipations were wrong, still I would observe that geology 

 had nevertheless indicated the possibility of other conditions ; for 

 Mr. Godwin-Austen, taking a wider field of observation, and basing 

 his deductions upon phsenomena carefully studied in Belgium and 

 the west of England, came to the remarkable conclusion, commu- 

 nicated to this Society last spring, that the axis of the Ardennes 

 was prolonged under the cretaceous series of the south of England, 

 and reappeared again on the surface in Somersetshire ; and he 

 inferred that it was probable that the coal-measures might be found 

 under part of the London Tertiary and Wealden districts. The evi- 

 dence adduced by Mr. Austen is of that nature that I am prepared to 

 admit the possibility of such a case, and therefore consider that the 



* Since writing the above the property has passed into the possession of the 

 New River Company, and the works are at present suspended at this point.— 

 [J. P., January 1856.] 



