Ixxviii rEocEEDTX&s or the geological society. ^Jiiiie 1912,. 



It should again be stated that the Commission relegated these 

 figures to an appendix, and did not commit themselves to any more 

 derinite opinion on the probable duration of supply than is contained 

 in the general statement already quoted. 



(c) Sir AVilliam Eamsay's Estimate. 



The President of the British Association, Sir William Ramsay, 

 devoted a part of his address at the meeting at Portsmouth last 

 year to the question of the exhaustion of the coal supply of Britain. 

 Coming from one holding so exalted a position, and himself 

 so eminent an authority in science, the opinion thus expressed 

 calls for the most careful consideration and the utmost respect. 

 Pounding upon the figures given in the Eeport of the Second 

 Commission for the amount of coal left in the proved coalfields 

 (100,000 million tons), and computing that the amount mined will 

 increase in the future as it has done in the past thirty years by 

 3'3 million tons annually, Sir William Bamsay estimates that 

 exhaustion of the British supply will be completed in 175 years. 

 On this conclusion he proceeds to issue a very grave warning 

 against the present waste of coal which is taking place in the 

 process of coke-making, in house-fires, and in consequence of the 

 incomplete efficiency of machinery, and suggests directions in which 

 better economy may be attained. 



Sir William Earasay's estimate is practically in agreement with 

 that based by Mr. Price Williams on his first series of tables, and 

 the startling figure, 175 years from the present time, is useful in 

 laying marked emphasis on the precariousness of our coal supply 

 and in calling the serious attention of the Xation to the adoption of 

 economies in which miners, chemists, metallurgists, manufacturers,, 

 engineers, and the general public in their use of house-fires are 

 chiefly concerned. 



It is, however, only right that we, as Geologists, should point out 

 that Sir William Eamsay has left out of his calculations the coal 

 estimated by the Commission to occur in the 'unproved' coal- 

 fields. The importance of this unproved coal becomes clear when 

 it is remembered that nearly one-third (40,000 million tons) out 

 of the total available coal (140,000 millions of tons) estimated by 

 the Commission is in these 'unproved' fields. And the trust- 

 worthiness of such estimates appears from the following : — 

 Assuming the two Commissions to have been in full accord as to 

 the amount of coal in the exposed fields, the 100,000 million tons 

 of the second Commissions proved coal must be made up of the first 



