284 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Coal Measures beneath the South-East of England . 
The predictions (for such at the time they appeared to be) of 
Mr. E. A. Godwin- Austen, so far back as 1856, as to the 
physical condition of the older rocks beneath the south-eastern 
part of England, and probable extension of the coal measures 
under the same area, seem now to be almost fulfilled ; but as 
Mr. Austen then stated, “ any restoration of the European sur- 
face for this very early period must be purely ideal f it was 
to the correct restoration of definite boundaries for areas of 
land and water in the upper portions of the Palaeozoic group 
that his views and speculations mainly looked for confirmation. 
Air. Austen then stated that “those terrestrial masses which 
are represented only by the oldest Palaeozoic groups had mostly 
disappeared;” nevertheless, he says, “ we can ascertain something 
as to their mineral composition and the spaces they occupied, 
and in this way sketch out the surface of the northern hemi- 
sphere under its earliest arrangements.” 
Of late these far-seeing views and generalizations, and which 
at first sight seemed problematical, have been singularly realized 
and verified. Mr. Austen selected for his theme the intricate 
question of the “probable extension of the coal measures 
beneath the south-eastern part of England.” By this he not 
only attempted to trace the terrestrial surface on which the old 
British coal forests stood, and their probable range and area, 
but carried his researches into western Europe, from Valen- 
ciennes to the valley of the Euhr, east of the Ardennes, a 
distance of 170 miles, and then on to Westphalia. Along this 
great coalfield numerous trial-shafts have indicated its probable 
extension and continuity. 
The Valenciennes coalfield is known to extend and has been 
proved 80 miles west of Valenciennes by Douay, Bethune, and 
St. Omer, and worked beneath the Chalk of the north of France. 
The Palaeozoic rocks of the Boulonnais have been revealed 
below the cretaceous series at Guines at a depth of 800 feet, 
and consisted of sandstones and shales ; and as will be seen 
hereafter, the Silurian rocks below, of older date still, were 
touched by the boring-tool at the same depth at Calais, and at 
a depth of 1,100 feet, and below the chalk the true Coal- 
measures were determined. 
The determination or recognition of the presence of the Coal- 
measures (Upper Palaeozoic rocks) in the north coast of France, 
their undoubted connection with and prolongation from the 
Belgian area, led to the views then enunciated by Mr. Godwin - 
Austen as to the “ amount of evidence ( a priori ) as to whether 
the coal series may be continued further west across the Straits 
of Dover and so beneath our south-eastern counties,” and 
