I860.] GODWIN-AUSTEN — COAL IN CHALK. 327 



fire in a short time. The visitors brought away a specimen, weigh- 

 ing about 31 lbs., which Mr. Walker, the sub -contractor, courteously 

 caused to be sawn off, and which the East Kent Natural History 

 Society will present to the Canterbury Museum. The discovery of 

 coal under the circumstances described is, we believe, extremely 

 unusual." — Kentish Gazette, Oct. 6th, 1859. 



It was not until after this that I put myself into communication 

 with Mr. Mills, the engineer in charge of the construction of the line 

 in question. Writing to me on the 3rd of November, he says, — 

 " There is no sign of coal in the tunnel now ; we found one lump 

 only, about 4 cwt." 



In December I received from the same gentleman a portion of the 

 coal so met with. He observes, — " On it you will perceive some of 

 the chalk-bed in which it was lying. Its immediate bed was chalk 

 strongly tinged with an iron-rusty colour. There was only one mass 

 of coal, from about 4 to 10 inches thick and about 4 feet square.''' 



These particulars are confirmed by inspection of the specimens 

 here exhibited. 



The points of interest which suggest themselves are mainly refer- 

 able — 1, to the age of the coal ; 2, to its occurrence in the Chalk. 



1. The mass in question is undoubtedly a vegetable product, origi- 

 nally formed on some terrestrial surface ; and was part of a bed of 

 Carbonaceous matter, parted by thin seams of ferruginous deposit. 



It is bituminous ; burns readily in the flame of the spirit-lamp, 

 giving off a peculiar smell like that of retinasphalt. In these, as in 

 its external characters, it resembles some of the Oolitic coal of our 

 own area and some of that of the Wealden of the Continent. It is 

 probably of Oolitic age ; it is certainly unlike any coal of the true 

 Coal-measures. 



2. The specific gravity of this coal precludes the supposition that 

 it could have floated away of itself into the Cretaceous sea. 



Considering its friability, I do not think that the agency of a 

 floating tree could have been engaged in its transport ; but, looking 

 at its flat angular form, it seems to me that its history may agree 

 with what 1 have already suggested with reference' to the boulder in 

 the Chalk at Croydon*. We may suppose that during the Creta- 

 ceous period some bituminous beds of the preceding I tolitic period lay 

 so as to be covered by water near the sea-margin tii- along some 

 river-bank, and from which portions could be raised <>tl by ire, and 

 so drifted away, until tie' Ice was oo longer able to support its load, 



The northern limit of the Cretaceous seas in the European region 

 reached high enough in latitude to have given the requisite degree 

 of winter-cold ; and within the Bame limits there are localities where 

 Oolitic strata tunned the coasl of the Cretaceous sea. 



We may confidently look forward t<> the day when, by the aid >>i 

 these extraneous masses which have been dropped over the bed "f 

 the sea of the Cretaceous period, w> -hall be enabled to laj down, as 

 "ii urn- own charts now, the Bet of the- marine currents "t that >. a. 



* Quart. Journ 1 1 - roL sii , p -' ■-' 



