Vol. 69.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lxxix 



know enough to be certain that there is little, if any, agreement 

 between them and the contouring. The character of the platform 

 seems to be attributable in the first place to marine planation and 

 its form to subsequent warping. 



For further pursuance of this method of investigation of the 

 platform Ave must await the gathering of more evidence. So far as 

 regards boring operations, no additional stimulus appears to be called 

 for, so long as there remains a possibility of discovering workable 

 coal. But I find here an opportunity of giving expression to an 

 opinion which I have long held, that registration of deep borings 

 in a Government Department should be made compulsory. In the 

 Final Report of the Eo}^al Commission on Coal-Supplies we inserted 

 the following clause: — 



'A large number of borings have been made in various parts of the country 

 ranging to upwards of 3000 feet in depth. At present no machinery exists for 

 preserving any information thus obtained, and we think it would be of great 

 advantage if pai-ticulars of borings could be collected and preserved in a 

 Government Office.' 



This recommendation contemplates the inclusion of scientific 

 results among the other particulars to be preserved, and on this 

 account it might not be acceptable to explorers who for financial 

 reasons were desirous of keeping to themselves the information 

 which they had been put to expense to gain. There would pro- 

 bably be no difficulty in meeting the wishes of the explorers on 

 this point ; but, at any rate, the objection would not apply to the 

 registration of other particulars. At present it is open to any 

 member of the community, after agreement with the owner of the 

 land, to bore a hole wherever he likes, as large as he pleases, as 

 deep as he can go, and to leave no record. There can be no object 

 in keeping the site, the diameter, or the depth of the hole secret ; 

 in fact it is not possible to do so. These particulars at least should 

 be compulsorily registered, and the site of an important boring per- 

 manently marked. In one case at least a record, effective so far as 

 it goes, has been made of the exact site, with other particulars, of 

 a borehole. The site of a trial for coal at Foryd, near Rhyl, is 

 marked by an inscribed stone, erected, I believe, by the Office of 

 Woods & Forests. 



It may be thought that a sufficient record is kept by the 

 Geological Survey. As a fact, it is only through courtesy or by 

 chance that we learn that borings are in progress. There are many 



