Murchisons Silurian System. 19 



two great formations of sandstones, named the New, and the 

 Old Red — that the lower beds of the first, and the upper 

 beds of the latter, may contain thin seams of poor coal, which, 

 in order to appreciate properly when met with in an unde- 

 scribed district, we should be able to refer to one or other of 

 the two formations. If the thin seam of coal belong to the Old 

 Red Sandstone, boring or sinking in search of a better bed 

 would obviously be a waste of money, as we should rather 

 direct our inquiries to overlying rocks, and if these do not 

 occur, a further search for coal in the district would be useless. 

 If, however, the coal seam belongs to the New Red Sandstone, 

 our search should be extended to the older or underlying 

 strata, not by boring, for then we might, like the gentlemen 

 of Whitchurch and Market Drayton, have several thousand 

 feet of new red sandstone between us and the coal, even if 

 its existence were certain. It is only therefore where coal 

 seams are met with in coal formations, that borings and sink- 

 ings should be resorted to. 



Then the question arises, How are we to become acquaint- 

 ed with these important distinctions, on a knowledge of which 

 the condition of society so much depends, especially in 

 India ? Fortunately for us, coal seems to be so abundant in 

 India, that no great nicety is required to detect it; but to 

 pursue the discovery, and to bring it into use, is another and 

 more difficult task. 



Mr. Murchison observes, that the Lias is succeeded in the 

 descending series by beds of green and red marl, constituting 

 the upper portion of the series of strata, called the New Red 

 System, which includes all those beds of marl, sandstone, and 

 limestone, which lie between the Lias and the carboniferous 

 rocks, and which, from their development, are capable of 

 being divided into formations by differences in lithological 

 and fossiliferous characters. 1. Saliferous marls; 2. Red 

 sandstone and quartzose conglomerate; 3. Conglomerate 



