XCvi PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [JunO I912, 



the exploration of concealed Palaeozoic rocks by means of borings. 

 The subject was again taken up by Mr. F. W. Harmer in a paper 

 read at the British Association Meeting in 1895, and a scheme was 

 drafted by him for a systematic survey by means of borings. 



The vital importance of coal to Britain, and the chance that 

 coalfields other than those at present known or suspected may 

 exist, make out at the least a case for serious consideration, and 

 suggest that if it is not regarded as inconsistent with the ordinary 

 canons of economy and business, some attempt ought to be made 

 to determine the existence and extent of these possible concealed 

 coal-basins. 



{a) A Profitable Investment. 



If such a survey were possible, and if it should prove that there is 

 any considerable area of buried coalfield, the money spent upon it 

 would be a most profitable investment. If carried out by a group 

 of individuals, it would be a good business proposition, because it 

 would save loss of capital, and would point the way to the avoidance 

 of waste. If carried out by the Nation, it would imply the probable 

 discovery and establishment of a national asset by which the 

 disaster of early exhaustion of our coalfields might be postponed. 



The object of a planned series of borings carried out on a definite 

 system would be very different from those as a rule put down under 

 present conditions. Their deliberate purpose would be to elucidate 

 the geological structure of the concealed area. The majority 

 of them would, of course, be put down mainly with a view to direct 

 and immediate economic results, the search for coal where there 

 might be some likelihood of its discovery. Bat many would have 

 to be made without necessarily any direct prospect of gain, for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the general or detailed structure of the 

 concealed area, and for the acquisition of that tectonic knowledge 

 which is a vital necessity for the profitable development of any 

 coalfield. By such borings, maps might be made which would serve 

 to guide the miner to spots where coal actually exists as distinct 

 from areas where it is absent, as do the published maps in the 

 unconcealed areas. But, although these maps would be at first 

 merely rough indications, increasing exploration would gradually 

 give such a clue to the tectonic arrangement of the Palceozoic rocks 

 under the Neozoic cover, that they would eventually furnish the 

 same class of structural information with reference to hypogean 

 outcrops as is givfin by the ordinary outcrop maps. 



