CjQ THE GEOLOGIST. 



matter the very di^egs of earth may become redolent vvith life and 

 beauty, om^ thoughts tui-n in reverent homage to the great planner 

 and preserver of all things, by whose sometimes inscrutable, but 

 always benevolent laws, the order and endurance of creation is main- 

 tained. 



(To he continued.) 



ON THE SOUTH WALES COAL-FIELD. 



By G. p. Bevan, M.D., E.G.S. 



As the season for active out of door geological work is now ap- 

 proaching, I propose to give a brief glance at some interesting 

 featui-es of the South Wales coal-field, in the hopes that pedestrian 

 geologists may be tempted to make it one of the scenes of their 

 labom-s. And they will be richly rewarded ; for, though coal-fields 

 generally give us an impression of a black, unsightly countiy, with- 

 out vegetation or anything pleasant for the eye to rest upon, they 

 are not all alike, and that of South Wales is as rich in beautiful scenery 

 above gi'ound, as it is in the precious mineral beneath. Glorious 

 hills intersected by narrow valleys and wooded dells, each washed by 

 its mountain- stream, and antiquities — in the shape of castles, abbeys, 

 cromlechs, and caims, may tempt the tourist to whom geology does 

 not hold out sufficient inducement. It is in outward features, which 

 I shall first touch upon, that this differs so much from other coal- 

 fields, the basin being more clearly marked, and the underlying grits 

 and limestones, being more uniform in their development than in any 

 district in Great Britaiu. Indeed, it is only in two places that the 

 regularity of the basiu is broken, viz., between IS'ewton Nottage and 

 the ^lumbles, and at Llanelly, iu Caennai'thenshii-e, and then solely 

 because the coal-measures run under the respective bays of Swansea 

 and Caemarthen. The basin, however, is not altogether round, but 

 of an irregulai'ly oblong shape, caused by the north and south 

 boundaries approaching each other towai-ds Pembrokeshu^e. The 



