94 
SECTIONS TO CONNECT THE LANCASHIRE 
At the commencement of the meeting, Messrs. Binney and 
Bowman were elected honorary members of the society, and during 
the course of the subsequent proceedings Mr. Charles Morton made 
a report of the result of the previous day's discussion. The Man- 
chester Geological Society at its last meeting had decided to assist 
in forming the section, and to continue the Yorkshire section on the 
Lancashire side of the Penine Chain. There were no accurate 
sections on a large scale across the island at this latitude, and it was 
considered that the completion of even one section across Yorkshire 
and Lancashire would throw so much light on the structure and 
stratification of the two coal fields, and of the ridge of hills which 
divides them, that great benefit would be conferred on geological 
science generally, and to the members of these two societies in 
particular. Three different lines of sections had been proposed, but 
it was desirable to concentrate all the energies of the society upon 
one of them. Such a section should be carried on in a north-easterly 
direction, this being the line of the greatest dip of the strata ; and 
its latitude should not be further north than Leeds, nor further south 
than Sheffield, otherwise it would be beyond the limit of the Yorkshire 
coal-field altogether. Perhaps the best line would be an intermediate 
one, that is, in the latitude of Barnsley, for the stratification of this 
coal-field is probably more fully developed between Penistone and 
Goole than in any other direction. The information which this 
section should contain ought to be local and in detail, not as geological 
sections too often are, composed of vague generalities, and a mixture 
of half fact and half fiction. The surface of the country should be 
carefully levelled and laid down, towns, villages, roads, rivers, collieries, 
&c., should be noticed, vertical sections of pits, boreholes, quarries 
and cliffs should be delineated, the insertion of the bassets or out- 
crops of coal, ironstone, and other remarkable strata should be marked 
down, with their names and thickness, the crossing of faults or throws, 
should be registered, and the extent of the dislocation up or down 
should be stated, the continuous position and dip of the different 
beds (where these can be correctly ascertained,) should be drawn. 
The sources from whence the requisite information may be obtained 
are various and numerous, and the means of executing both this and 
