CXXX1V PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



been moved down from a more marginal locality, before they were 

 imbedded. Many other examples are given of this forcible removal 

 of fossils from their original locality, and their subsequent deposi- 

 tion in the deep-sea bed ; but I need not follow Mr. Austen through 

 the details of this inquiry, as no one will now hesitate to admit that 

 all the means of transport which now exist, such as the tidal wave, 

 floating ice, floating trees, sea- weed, &c, are as likely to have been 

 in operation within the Cretaceous epoch. Some of these (as, for 

 example, ice) may, as suggested by Mr. Austen, have been modified 

 in their action by a difference in the physical circumstances of the 

 then existing dry land and sea ; but all may have more or less con- 

 tributed to the results produced. I will only further observe that 

 Mr. Austen investigates with great ingenuity the form and com- 

 position of the dry land of the chalk-period, — as, for example, ho 

 shows that the Cretaceous strata of many localities indicate littoral 

 conditions, and therefore that the older rocks (whether gneissic, 

 granitic, or slaty) which are now in close proximity to them must 

 have even then been in the condition of land- surface. 1 shall not 

 follow Mr. Austen in his attempt to trace out the coast-line during 

 the Cretaceous epoch ; and I will conclude my remarks on his paper 

 by observing that he has appropriated to himself a class of research 

 which is difficult in proportion to its apparent obscurity, but which 

 he is likely by his skill and perseverance to place very high amongst 

 the objects of the philosophical geologist. 



A short paper by Mr. Prestwich again brings under our notice the 

 ingenious speculations of Mr. Austen, and goes far to prove their 

 accuracy. It refers to the recent borings for water at Harwich, in 

 which the artesian well has been carried to the depth of 1070 feet, 

 having passed through the superficial drift, the tertiary strata, chalk, 

 upper greensand, and gault ; but below these well-known strata, 

 the normal rocks or deposits which ought to have appeared were 

 deficient, and a mass denominated a black slaty rock appeared instead, 

 as shown by the fragments brought up, and examined by Mr. Prest- 

 wich. In the Kentish Town well, the chalk was found to be under- 

 laid by rocks which lithologically appeared to belong to the Triassic 

 epoch, but the evidence was not considered conclusive : in the present 

 case Mr. Prestwich considers the proof of the absence of a large por- 

 tion of the normally underlying rocks to be satisfactory ; and, though 

 he is unable to satisfy himself whether the rock arrived at belonged 

 to the Carboniferous or to the Silurian epoch, yet that the evidence 

 in both the Kentish Town and Harwich wells is sufficient to warrant 

 him in adopting, at least in part, Mr. Godwin- Austen's hypothesis 

 of the extension of an underground tract of the older rocks, ranging 

 from the mountains of the Ardennes in Belgium to the Mendip Hills 

 in the West of England, and therefore breaking the continuity of the 

 Lower Greensand under London. The actual form of this ancient 

 pakeozoic land, Mr. Prestwich considers to have been a broken ridge 

 rather than a broad tract ; and this is unquestionably the most in 

 conformity with the probable elevatory cause of its existence. Even 

 though Mr. Godwin-Austen may never have the gratification of 



