42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Such is M. E. de Beaumont's view both of the importance of the 

 inquiry, and of the main points which it involves. The question 

 itself may be of greater importance to France than to this country, 

 from her relatively limited supply of coal ; yet, considering the 

 demand we are now making on our own coal-fields, it may not be 

 amiss that the theoretical geologist should point out in every case 

 such areas as may possibly furnish us with fresh supplies. 



[Note. — As, in tracing out the progressive changes which took place 

 in the physical outlines of A'^estern Europe during early times, I had 

 been led to a belief that the systematic representation at present 

 in use is not the true one, I must be allowed to state that in the 

 following pages the term "Carboniferous" will include the con- 

 ditions — whether terrestrial, freshwater, or marine — from the Mar- 

 wood beds and their equivalents upwards. This is the "Upper 

 Palaeozoic Group." 



The " Lower Palaeozoic Group " will designate all marine sedimen- 

 tary strata up to "Lower Silurian," inclusive. 



The " Middle Group " will comprise two series, which I cannot 

 but consider to have been equivalent, viz. the " Upper Silurian " and 

 the "Devonian."] 



A. Form of the Terrestrial Surface of the Coal-growths. 

 British Area. 



The restoration of the physical features of Western Europe in 

 their earliest form can only be indicated here in outline. There 

 existed a continuous range extending from the Arctic circle, perhaps 

 as low as north Africa, running north and south, and nearly equal in 

 extent with the great linear ranges of the American continent. Of 

 this range the Scandinavian portion now remains, extending through 

 16° of latitude. It can be traced beneath the overlying deposits of 

 Northern Germany ; it reappears through the eocene series of Bel- 

 gium ; is preserved in the Spessart, Vosgean, and Schwartzwald ranges ; 

 expands into the central plateau of France on the west, and the 

 Estrelles (Var) on the east, and is represented in the Mediterranean 

 area by Corsica and Sardinia. 



To the west, old land lay to the north and west of the British 

 Islands group : this land did not wholly disappear until some long 

 subsequent period, and in its southern extension formed the boundary 

 of the great European basin ; but, although this land encroached more 

 on the Atlantic than land does now, yet that great valley, which from 

 earliest times has been the parting line between two sets of represent- 

 ative and synchronous faunas, is a physical feature of earliest date. 



The greater part by far of the earth's visible mineral 5M?y<zc(? being 

 derivative, the sources of the oldest sedimentary strata must neces- 

 sarily be concealed beneath what is now sea; indeed it would be 

 difficult to fix on any masses which supplied the materials of the 

 oldest British strata, — these masses have wholly disappeared. The 

 arrangement of these early deposits was in subordination to masses 



