1870.] 



the Newer Formations of England. 



223 



strata, and which produced the discordances of stratification between the 

 newer Palaeozoic and Mesozoic formations, were shown to have acted along 

 lines ranging approximately north and south, parallel to the axis of the 

 Pennine Chain, and consequently in a direction transverse to those of the 

 previous period. These disturbances were also accompanied by the denu- 

 dation of strata from off the anticlinal arches, and the consequent dis- 

 severance of the Coal-measure tracts over certain definite areas. The re- 

 sults of these movements (the second phase in defining the bounds of the 

 coal-fields) were illustrated by Map No. 3. 



From a consideration of the foregoing observations, the author came to 

 the conclusion that the tendency of the British coal-fields to arrange them- 

 selves into the form of "basins" (sometimes partially concealed by newer 

 strata), a tendency strongly insisted on by Prof. Ramsay, F.R.S., was due 

 to the intersection of the two systems of flexures above described, one 

 anterior to the Permian period, the other anterior to the Triassic period, 

 and that the actual disseverance of the coal-fields into basins was due to 

 denudation acting with greatest effect along the anticlinal arches of these 

 flexures. 



The inference that the Yorkshire and Durham coal-fields are really 

 basins rising to the eastward under the Mesozoic strata was drawn, an in- 

 ference supported by the easterly rise of the Coal-measures along the 

 sea-coast from the Coquet to the Tyne. 



Guided by these principles, the author maintained that we are now in 

 a position to determine with great accuracy the actual limits of the Coal- 

 measures under the Mesozoic formations over the area to the north of the 

 central barrier ridge (as indicated on Map No. 3) ; and that to the south 

 of the ridge the application of the same principles would assist towards 

 the solution of the question, though in a less degree, owing to the fewer 

 opportunities for observation of the Palaeozoic formations. 



The author, however, concurred in the views advanced by Sir R. I. 

 Murchison*, that in consequence of the great amount of denudation which 

 the Carboniferous rocks had undergone over the area of the south of 

 England previous to the deposition of the Mesozoic formations, little coal 

 was to be expected to remain under the Cretaceous rocks. 



II. "On the Constitution of the Solid Crust of the Earth." By 

 the Ven. John Henry Pratt, Archdeacon of Calcutta, M.A., 

 F.R.S. Received September 19, 1870. 



(Abstract.) 



In this paper the author applies the data furnished by the pendulum-ob- 

 servations recently made in India to test the truth of the following hypo- 



* In his Address at the Meeting of the British Association at Nottingham, 1866. 

 On the other hand, the views of Mr. E. Godwin- Austen, F.R.S., which tend rather in an 

 opposite direction, should be well weighed by all who are interested in this question. 

 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xii.) 



