XIX.—PALAMO-GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL MAPS OF THE 
BRITISH ISLANDS AND THE ADJOINING PARTS OF THE CONTI- 
NENT OF EUROPE. By Epwarp Httt, 11.p., F.r.s., &., Director oF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF IRELAND, AND Prornssor or Grontoay In THE Roya 
CoLLEGE oF Science, Dusury. Puates XXII. tro XXXYV. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Tue preparation of a series of maps showing the relations of land and sea during 
successive geological periods over the British area has been an undertaking which 
I have long contemplated, but, until now, did not see my way to carry out. The 
idea has, doubtless, suggested itself to other geologists; and I cannot but feel 
surprise that, except very partially, no one has hitherto made the attempt to 
realize it. I understand from the Rev. Dr. Haughton, of Trinity College, Dublin, 
that about a quarter of a century ago, the late Mr. William Longman, the then 
head of the eminent publishing firm, expressed a wish to have such a set of maps 
prepared for publication, and suggested that he (Dr. Haughton) should undertake 
their preparation. Circumstances prevented this; but it may be affirmed with 
some confidence that the time had not then arrived when this task could have been 
accomplished with satisfactory results; because it is within this period that much 
of our present knowledge of the structure of, at least, the English area has been 
obtamed by the details collected and portrayed on maps by the Government 
Surveyors, and by the numerous deep underground boring-experiments which have 
been made at intervals over a large portion of the centre or south of that country 
in search of either coal, water, or for other purposes. These borings have been of 
the greatest interest to geologists, though perhaps not always equally so to their 
projectors, because they have revealed the internal structure of a large extent 
of country which would otherwise have been the subject only of conjecture or of 
geological inference. For the present purpose they have proved of material use. 
Certainly, without their aid it would have been impossible for me to have shown 
accurately, the range of the Triassic, Liassic, and Oolitic formations in the direction 
of the Thames valley and of the eastern coast, after they had been successively 
lost sight of beneath the more recent deposits. 
These borings have also thrown much light upon the position of the Carboniferous, 
Devonian, and Silurian rocks below the Cretaceous area; and though they have 
not solved the question so ably handled on physical grounds by Murchison, 
Godwin-Austen, and Prestwich“ Where may coal be found under the newer forma- 
tions of the South of England,” they have to a very large extent shown where the 
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