318 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Mr. H. Peyton considers that the first 180 feet represent the Purbeck 
beds, and the next 110 feet the Portland beds. 
The recent accident owing to the boring-rods slipping down the hole 
presented no serious difficulties. The whole of the tackle has now (June 
17) been recovered, and the boring is resumed. It is anticipated that a 
depth of 1,000 feet from the surface will be reached this week, which 
will terminate the first contract with the Diamond Bock Boring Company. 
It is to be hoped that sufficient funds will be forthcoming to enable 
the boring to be continued, as the interest attaching to the explcration is 
intensifying as the depth increases, and the marvellous speed with which 
the Boring Company have lately been prosecuting the work would make 
it probable that a month or two more would solve the question of what 
underlies the Wealden formation. 
The Coal-yields of the United States have been fully dealt with by Mr. James 
Macfarlane, M.A., in his work on this subject, which has been published by 
Messrs. Triibner, of Paternoster Eow. With regard to the enormous area of 
the coal-fields of the United States, containing in all 192,000 square miles, 
besides the lignites of the Far West, the vast quantity, great variety, 
accessibility, and wide distribution of their stores of coal — which, up to the 
present time, have hardly been developed to any really great extent — it is, as 
Mr. Macfarlane justly observes, the manifest destiny of America soon to 
become the greatest coal-producing country in the world. The following 
table shows the relation between area and production of the various coal- 
producing countries of the world (given onp. 674 of Mr. Macfarlane’s admir- 
able work). 
Coal-producing Countries. 
Area in Sq. 11. 
of Coal-fields. 
Date. 
Tons. 
Per Cent. 
Production. 
The United States . . . 
Nova Scotia 
Great Britain 
France 
Belgium 
Prussia 
I Austria 
Spain 
Chili, Australia, China, &c. 
Totals .... 
192,000 
18,000 
11,900 
1,800 
900 
1,800 
1,800 
3,000 
28,800 
1872 
1871 
1871 
1867 
1871 
1869 
1862 
1869 
1872 
41,000,000 
673,242 
117,352,0 28 
12,148.223 
13,671,470 
26,774,368 
4,525,783 
593,033 
3,000,000 
18-66 
0*31 
53-41 
5- 54 
6- 23 
12-19 
2-02 
•27 
1-37 
260,000 
219,738,147 
100- | 
The Physical History of the Phine Valley . — Professor A. C. Bamsay, 
V.P.B.S., has gone into this subject in a paper read before the Geological 
Society, at one of its meetings this session. The author first described the 
general physical characters of the valley of the Bhine, and discussed some of 
the hypotheses which have been put forward to explain them. His own 
opinion was that during portions of the Miocene epoch the drainage through 
the great valley between the Schwarz wald and the Vosges ran from the 
Devonian hills north of Mainz into the area now occupied by the Miocene 
rocks of Switzerland. Then, after the physical disturbances which closed 
the Miocene epoch in these regions, the direction of the drainage was re- 
