44 W. WHITAKEK OliT SOME BOEINGS IN KENT. 



passage between the two, and the rain that falls oa the Lower Green- 

 sand at its outcrop may pass into the Trias at great depths ; hut 

 I doubt whether this possibility adds much to the chances of getting 

 water from deep-seated beds. 



It is to be hoped that the time is not far distant when further 

 underground exploration may set at rest the important question of . 

 the possibility of getting coal in the South-east of England, and 

 that such explorations may be carried out on a systematic plan 

 carefully thought out beforehand, instead of being left to the chance 

 efforts of corporations and companies, whose only object is to get 

 water, in which, as a rule, less ambitious work would be more 

 likely to lead to success. 



It may not be out of place to draw attention to the three points 

 of view from which an extended set of experimental deep borings 

 may be approached (as I suggested to the late Mr. Godwin- Austen, 

 when a Kentish boring was thought of some years ago). 



^Firstly we have tojpograpliical considerations, nearness to tracts 

 where older rocks are known to occur ; and in this respect Dover is 

 well placed, at no very great distance from the outcrop of the 

 Carboniferous rocks of Northern Prance. 



Then we have the question of level, it being clearly of import- 

 ance to begin such work at as low a level as possible : here, again, 

 Dover is a good site, the lower part of the town being little above 

 the level of the sea. 



Lastly, there is the purely geological point, the beginning low 

 down in the series of formations ; and in this too Dover is fairly well 

 placed, being a long way down from the top of the Chalk. The 

 progress therefore of a deep boring at Dover should be watched with 

 much interest. 



It is not meant, of course, that any one of these points should 

 lead us, apart from others : indeed the failure of the Subwealden 

 boring (as far as regards bottoming Secondary rocks) is a warning 

 against too restricted a view, the site of that trial being admirably 

 selected geologically : topographically the selection was unfortunately 

 limited by a county-boundary. The experiments that I should like 

 to see made should be cramped by no such arbitrary notion : they 

 should not be parochial, but national, an application of our science 

 to the good of our country. 



E. Explanation oe the Map and Section. 



The map (p. 45) is reduced from the Ordnance Index Map, 

 which is on the scale of 10 miles to an inch. On it are shown, 

 by dots, the sites of the Subwealden boring and of the eight 

 borings in the London Basin which have passed through the Creta- 

 ceous beds to Jurassic or older rocks (not including the Saffron- 

 Walden well with a depth of more than 1000 feet, of the bottom 

 720 of which no details have been kept). The relative positions 

 and distances of these borings can therefore be seen at a glance. 

 The sites have been connected by straight lines, along which are 

 marked the distances, in miles, between each boring and every other, 



