and Flintshire; or have ascertained the truth in analogous situations, such as the district bordering the coalfields of Leicestershire and Warwickshire.
Perhaps there is a coalfield beneath parts of the Cheshire plain. This may be plausibly argued, from the fact that all the bordering coalfields dip beneath that plain; and the probability of the inference is greatly strengthened by the circumstance (first ascertained by the author of this volume) that the limestone beds which lie in the upper part of the Lancashire coal tract are identical with those previously described by Mr. Murchison from the coalfield of Lebotwood, near Shrewsbury. This limestone is of a peculiar quality, yields peculiar fossils, and lies in connection with coal-beds yielding peculiar plants, at both these distant points; circumstances which go far to prove, not perhaps the entire contiguity of the rock from point to point, but its contemporaneous deposition in one and the same coal basin. It is, therefore, probable that that coal basin is really continuous under parts of the Cheshire plain of red sandstone. Whether it will be worth while to sink for this coal is not a question for geology to answer; but if the attempt is to be made, geological investigation alone can indicate the proper situation for the trial.
Geologists must not be deterred, by the neglect which too frequently has attended their recommendations, from calling on "practical men" to consider and make profitable use of their discoveries and reasonings. Few of their important announcements have really been unproductive; the seed which they have sown, though favoured with little cultivation, has, in the end, grown up to be fruitful of good.
If any one should say geology makes no such prophetic announcements our collieries are extended without the aid of science, our iron works are supplied with the raw material by the experience of the workmen, and our gold comes by accidental discovery let him be reminded of the well-known fact that, had geology been believed, the date of the opening of our
