19. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE COAL. 689 



forced upwards, and before they emerged above the 

 waters. In other instances, the disintegration may have 

 taken place during their gradual elevation, in like man- 

 ner as the removal of the chalk, and denudation of the 

 underlying Wealden of the south-east of England, were 

 produced.* 



19. Geographical distribution of the Coal-mea- 

 sures. — Although the geological map {Plate I. p. 463) 

 is on so small a scale, it will serve to convey a general idea 

 of the geographical position of the areas occupied by the 

 carboniferous strata of England. The principal coal basins 

 are those of Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, North and 

 South Wales, Dudley, Shropshire, Leicestershire, Lanca- 

 shire, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, 

 Durham, Newcastle ; of the Forth and Clyde ; and the 

 central districts of Ireland. By far the greater part of the 

 coal of Ireland is pure anthracite : there are several coal- 

 basins exclusively of this mineral in five or six counties 

 in the south of the Island. 



On the Continent, coal, with limestones and red con- 

 glomerates, in some instances resembling, in others differing 

 from the English strata, occur in France, near Boulogne, 

 Mons, and St. Etienne ; in the Low Countries, at Namur 

 and Liege ; in Germany, Silesia, Moravia, Poland, and in 

 the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain limestone tract 

 along the Meuse, in the Netherlands, resembles that of 

 Derbyshire and Monmouthshire, and appears to be of the 

 same age ; and the scenery to which it gives rise will remind 

 the English traveller of the banks of the Derwent or the 

 Wye. 



In many parts of France and Germany there are isolated 

 patches of coal strata, entirely free from marine fossils, 

 which repose on granite and other hypogene rocks : they 



* See my Geology of the S. E. of England, chap. ix. ; or, Excursions 

 round the Isle of Wight, p. 74. 



