Personal and Scientific JVeivs. 319 
was made to Sir Edward Watkin and if the hopes of the drill- 
ers are confirmed and maintained an im{)ortant epoch in the 
history of coalmining in England will be marked. It is stated 
that coal has been found at the depth of 1180 feet under con- 
ditions that favor the belief that it will pay for working. 
Writing on the topic professor Boyd Dawkins who has always 
advocated the exploration says : "The Coal Measures with 
good blazing coal have been struck at a depth well within the 
practicable mining limit and the question is definitely settled 
which has vexed geologists for the last thirty years. Further 
exploration however, now under consideration, will be neces- 
sary before tlie thickness of the coal and the number of seams 
can be ascertained." 
Whatever the commercial result may be, this discovery is a 
gratifying instance of correct reasoning from geological data. 
The contention has been that the paheozoic rocks, which in 
the west carry the coal beds and which show an anticlinal 
structure running east and west pass under the London and 
Paris basin and reappear in the Belgian coal-fields near Liege. 
Consequently it was inferred that they could be found in the 
intervening area at no excessive depth. Several borings have 
shown the truth of this argument, but though paheozoic rocks 
were found no coal-bed has been struck until this late success- 
ful attempt. Should the find prove economically valuable it 
will be a singular instance of the return of an industry to its 
former situation, as in the davs of charcoal furnaces much 
iron was smelted in Sussex and other southern counties. It 
is said that the railings round the dome of St. Paul's cathedral 
were cast there. With the introduction of coal and coke, 
however, the manufacture migrated to the north. 
The General Committee constitued to make arrangements 
for the session of the International Congress of Geologists at 
Philadelphia, in 1891, held its third meeting in the National 
Museum at Washington, on April 18, 1890. There were present 
chairman Newberry, secretary H. S. Williams, and Cope, But- 
ton, Frazer, Gilbert, Hague. Hall, Lesley, Marsh, Powell, Stev- 
enson Walcott and A. Winchell. The committee adopted res- 
olutions to the following effect : 
1. That the local committee previously appointed for Phila- 
delphia 1)0 discharged. Moved by Prof. Lesley. 
2. That it is the sense of the General Committee that no 
postponement of the session is desirable; but that it should 
be held, as appointed in 1891. 
3. That it is the sense of this committee that the session 
should be held in Washington instead of Philadelphia. 
4. That the secretary be instructed to transmit this action to 
the Bureau in London. 
The determinations of the General Committee were based on 
the obvious impossilnlity of insuring desirable success under 
the arrangements existing for holding the session in Philadel- 
