ME. E. PROCTOR ON EOSSILIFEROUS OLD RED [March I913, 



6. Notes on the Discovery of Eossiliferous Old Red Sandstone 

 Rocks in a Boring at Southall, near Ealing. By Ernest 

 Proctor, A.R.C.S. (Communicated by Prof. W. W. Watts, 

 Sc.D., E.R.S., V.P.G.S. Read November 6th, 1912.) 



Introduction. 



In 1911 my attention was called to a boring at the works of 

 Messrs. Otto Monsted & Co. at Southall. The work was carried 

 out by Messrs. Isler & Co., and I wish to express my indebtedness 

 to the firms in question for the facilities granted for the examina- 

 tion of cores, and for permission to publish my conclusions thereon. 

 The examination of the rocks was carried out in the Geological 

 Laboratories of the Imperial College of Science & Technology, 

 and the determination of the bulk of the fish-remains was made 

 by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, who has added an appendix on them 

 to this paper. I am also indebted to Dr. D. H. Scott and to 

 Mr. A. J. Maslen for examining certain problematical fossils, 

 which are probably of vegetable origin. 



Southall is on the Great Western Railway, about midway 

 between Paddington and Windsor. The position of Messrs. Otto 

 Monsted & Co.'s factory is about 100 yards south of Southall 

 Station (G.W.R.). The purpose of the well was to obtain water 

 from the Lower Greensand, which had been struck and yielded 

 •copious supplies of water at Slough, 9 or 10 miles farther west. 

 As will be seen, the well was a failure from this point of view, as 

 the boring passed from the Gault directly into Palaeozoic rocks. 

 But to the geologist the result is of considerable interest, because 

 of the new light thrown by it on the age of the Palaeozoic rocks of 

 the London area. 



Particular reference is made in this paper to Prof. Judd's 

 memoir ' On the Nature & Relations of the Jurassic Deposits which 

 underlie London.' 1 Copious references to the literature, as well 

 as an admirable summary of the conclusions reached, are to be 

 found in Mr. Whitaker's 'Geology of London' Mem. Geol. Surv. 

 (1889). In the ' Report of the Royal Commission on Coal- 

 Supplies' 2 Dr. A. Strahan & Prof. 0. T. Jones give a table and 

 map (Appendix iv) of ' the more important borings, throwing light 

 on the possible occurrence of concealed coalfields,' with references 

 to published accounts. It is, therefore, needless to go any further 

 into the bibliography of deep borings. 



i Q. J. G. S. vol. xl (1884) p. 724. 



2 Final Eeport, pt. ix (1905) pp. 36-45. 



