PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



551 



Professor Morris delivered a lecture "On Coal; its Geological and Geo- 

 graphical position." Referring to the importance of the subject, the lecturer 

 remarked that he need only allude to the facts that the annual production of 

 coal had now reached the enormous quantity of 80,000,000 tons, in addition to 

 which it was estimated that there were 4,000,000 tons of small, which re- 

 mained useless upon the pit's bank, and that the working of this mineral gave 

 employment to half a million of our male population. This coal was produced 

 from 2,509 collieries in England and Wales, 427 in Scotland, and 73 in Ire- 

 land, so that the large area over which colliery operations extended could be 

 in some measure judged of. His subject being the geological and geographical 

 position of coal, he might most conveniently treat of it under two principal 

 heads — first, geologically, and then its geographical distribution. 



Assuming that the larger proportion of his audience were acquainted with 

 the geological sequence, he would simply remind them of the division of stra- 

 tified* rocks into Palaeozoic, Mezozoic, and Cainozoic, or Primary, Secondary, 

 aud Tertiary. Each of these were again subdivided, but it would be unneces- 

 sary at present to mention the whole of these sub-divisions. He would for 

 the present direct then attention to the Paleozoic series. In this series was 

 first the Silurian, above which the Devonian, next the Carboniferous, and then 

 the Permian rocks. Professor Morris then proceeded to illustrate by models 

 the mode by which the various strata were deposited, and explained that, 

 owing to the strata not lying horizontclly, and also to the circumstance that 

 some of the series were usually wanting, strata which would otherwise be 

 beyond the reach of human industry, were placed at our disposal. The car- 

 boniferous rocks were subdivided into the carboniferous limestone, the mill- 

 stone grit, and the coal measures proper ; but even the coal measures proper 

 did not consist of one solid and undivided bed of coal. The upper layer was 

 usually an imperfect shale, then came a more bituminous shale, and then the 

 coal proper, which was usually also separated by strata of shale of varying 

 thickness. In all the coal formations he might remark that there was positive 

 evidence of there having been vegetable life, and that in the whole of the 

 carboniferous rocks they frequently met with spirifers, goniatites, orthocera- 

 tites, nautili, and other marine shells. 



Of the vegetable kingdom they met with various descriptions of plants, the 

 size in some instances reaching that whicli almost entitled them to be called 

 timber trees; the calamite, sphenopteris, sigillaria, pecopteris, and lepido- 

 dendron, being, however, the principal, and of the animal kingdom, perhaps 

 there was no representative more interesting than the species of unio. With 

 regard, however, to the substance which they all knew as coal, he might men- 

 tion that its existence was not strictly confined to the carboniferous series, or 

 or to the palaeozoic formation, but that it was found also in the secondary and 

 tertiary formations, in support of which he might refer to the coal fields of 

 Yorkshire, which were of the oolitic formation, and to certain coal fields in 

 India, which undoubtedly belonged to the eocene or miocene age. 



Turning to the consideration of the geographical distribution of coal, the 

 Professor pointed out the principal fields from which the coal supply of the 

 world is derived, beginning with the Scotch coal field, and proceeding through 

 the Durham, Lancashire, and Yorkshire fields, as well as the minor deposits 

 between them. He then described the Forest of Dean, Bristol and South 

 Wales fields, referring incidentally to the fact that the coal measures of the 

 latter district is estimated to attain the thickness of 12,000 feet, so that an 

 enormous quantity of the precious fuel must be still at our disposal, even 

 making the most ample allowance for waste, and diminution from other causes. 

 He would here say a few words which might render some slight assistance to 

 those attempting to discover the precise mode in which the coal was deposited. 



