Vol. 50. J ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF 1HE PRESIDES!. 69 



Mr. Whitaker, however, concluded his paper with some valuable 

 remarks on the best site for additional borings at Dover in the hope 

 of piercing the Coal-measures. He mentioned with especial satis- 

 faction the accounts of the trial-boring then being made at the foot 

 of Shakespeare's Cliff, being even then animated by the conviction 

 that the day would come when coal would be worked in the South- 

 east of England. 



Since this paper was read no further communication has been 

 made to the Society with reference to boring at Dover, though you 

 are well aware that considerable progress has been made in this 

 direction through the exertions of Mr. Francis Brady, Chief Resident 

 Engineer of the South Eastern Railway, and his able coadjutors. 



That gentleman, in June 1892, published an interesting report of 

 the Dover Coal-boring, 1 at which date the depth attained was about 

 1875 feet. In December of the same year he had the satisfaction of 

 being able to forward a telegram to Sir Edward Watkin to the 

 effect that a 4-foot seam of good bituminous coal had been proved 

 at a depth of 2180 feet (the telegram says 2222 feet). As this 

 report deals with a question which had already been raised by 

 Mr. Whitaker in the Quarterly Journal, we are justified in con- 

 sidering the evidence which it affords of the development of the 

 Coal-measures in the South-east of England. 



To the Report is appended a vertical section giving full par- 

 ticulars as known up to December 1892, since which date, I am 

 given to understand, no greater depths have been proved. The 

 boring, it will be remembered, starts in the Grey Chalk, and 

 passes through 259 feet more of Upper Cretaceous rocks, inclusive 

 of the Gault. The Lower Cretaceous rocks, including the Lower 

 (ireensand, the Wealden and Hastings Beds, are estimated at no 

 more than 241 feet, whilst the Jurassic rocks, including Upper, 

 Middle, and Lower Oolites, with Lias at the base, are held to account 

 for 613 feet. The total thickness ofMesozoic rocks, or ' dead beds,' 

 bored through is 1113 feet, at which point the Coal-measures are 

 struck. 



As we are not dealing with the Mesozoic rocks on the present 

 occasion, the above estimates may pass without criticism, our atten- 

 tion being fixed on the details of the 1068 feet of Coal-measures 

 revealed by the boring-rod. In this series there are about 12 

 seams of coal, ranging from 1 to 4 feet in thickness, and terminating 



1 ' Dover Coal-boring. — Observations on the Correlation of the Franco- 

 Belgian, Dover, and Somerset Coal-fields.' (?) London, 1892. 



VOL. L. f 



