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 coUiery 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 
eads — first, geologically, and then its geographical distribution. 
Assuming that the larger proportion of his audience were acf^uainted with 
the geological sequence, he would simply remind them of the division of stra- 
tified rocks into Palteozoic, Mezozoic, and Cainozoic, or Primary, Secondary, 
and 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 their attention to the Palieozoic series. In this series was 
first tlie 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 horizontcUy, 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. Tlie car- 
boniferous rocks were subdivided into the carboniferous limestone, the mill- 
stone grit, and the coal measures proper ; but even the coal measures ])roper 
did not consist of one solid and undivided bed of coal. The upper layer was 
usually an imperfect sliale, then came a more bituminous slialc, 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 tliere 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 tliat which almost entitled them to be called 
timber trees; the calamite, spheuopteris, 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 miglit men- 
tion that its existence was not strictly confined to the carboniferous series, or 
or to the palisozoic formation, but that it was found also in the secondarv 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 Eorest 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. 
