1855.] AUSTEN COAL-MEASURES. 533 



only some fifteen feet on each side of her, and barely escaping 

 destruction. 



The houses of the residents were more or less injured, and some 

 entirely swept away. 



During the whole time of the occurrence of this phsencmenon, the 

 sky was clear, the wind light and the barometer at 29*90. There 

 was no apparent oscillation of the earth. 



The islands themselves seem to have undergone great changes in 

 former times, being covered with detached boulders and numerous 

 caverns, some of which are of great extent. There are also evidences 

 of the island having been formerly at a lower level (at least to the 

 extent of 50 feet), from the uniform ridges of coral and shells which 

 I observed at that height. Pumice-stone also abounds, and the resi- 

 dents informed me that some years ago the sea was covered with the 

 evidences of volcanic agency, which they said came in from seaward. 



I was also told by the residents that these "bores" occurred at 

 intervals of two or three years, but they have never known the tides 

 during such phsenomena to rise over four feet. 



Sulphur Island, which is an active volcano, and which lies in lat. 

 N. 24° 48', long. E. 141° 13', is supposed by some to be the cause 

 of these disturbances. 



2. On the Possible Extension of the Coal-Measures beneath 

 the South-eastern Part of England. By R. Godwin- 

 Austen, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



(The publication of this Paper is deferred.) 

 [Abstract.] 



From the valley of the Ruhr to that of the Scheldt, near Valenciennes, 

 there extend for 170 miles from east to west a continuous series of 

 productive coal-measures, which are placed on the north edge of 

 a mass or ridge of older formations, the principal part of which 

 is known as the Ardennes. From Valenciennes the coal-beds, 

 covered up by later formations, trend to the north-west, by Douay, 

 Bethune, and St. Omer, to Calais, beneath which last-named place 

 the coal-measures have been met with in boring for water. 



Along the Ruhr the coal-measures have a visible breadth of at 

 least sixteen miles, and extend far away beneath the cretaceous 

 deposits of Westphalia. From Aix-la-Chapelle to Namur they con- 

 tract in width, owing to a series of folds which they have undergone 

 from pressure between the ancient ridge and an isolated tract of 

 palaeozoic rocks in Central Belgium to the north, which the author 

 described in detail. From Mons, westward, they expand again, — an 

 important consideration with regard to the speculations in this paper. 



The author observed that these speculations mainly rested on the 

 correct restoration of the boundaries of land and water areas in 

 palaeozoic times ; and remarked that it was not until we ascended as 

 high as the Upper Palaeozoic deposits that we met with evidences of 

 definite hydrographical areas ; and that many terrestrial surfaces of 

 the Carboniferous period have remained such ever since. 



