327 
The British Association has already granted a sum of 
£200 in furtherance of the objects I now treat of, and to this 
sum it is hoped that a further addition will be made if the 
progress of the collection shall prove to be commensurate 
with its interest and importance. It will be gratifying to the 
Committee, at the next meeting of the British Association, 
if the seed they have endeavoured to sow in the shape of 
blank sections, shall bring forth the good fruit of those 
accurate records which the talents and perseverance of many 
members of this Society are so likely to produce. Those 
who are interested in the mining operations of this part of 
the kingdom, cannot but see how valuable and how practically 
useful is every section that throws light on the stratification 
of the coal field — its inclinations, its disturbances. Not only 
are the great features of anticlinal and synclinal axes clearly 
developed, but even the lesser faults — the gradual thickening 
or diminishing of strata — the occurrence of rocks usually 
identified with particular seams of coal. All these are mat- 
ters which closely concern the coal and land owner, inde- 
pendently of the more general advantages in a scientific 
point of view. Those gentlemen who have recently bestowed 
attention on the relations existing between geology and 
agricultural pursuits, would turn with ardour to pages so 
fraught with information as those I have endeavoured to 
describe. The approval of a Society established as this is, 
for the attainment of objects so closely identified with those 
which the British Association have endeavoured to encour- 
age, will tend much to further the interests of geology, by 
directing attention more widely to the subject. 
Equally important is it, that the members of this Society 
should use their influence in collecting and preserving copies 
of all borino^s and sinkincrs made in the district. The small 
chart which accompanies this paper is a convenient form for 
drawing such sections on a uniform scale ; the lines and 
