Physical circumstances also confirm this geographical arrangement. 1. The Northern District.-A chain of hills, denominated in the time of the Roman colonists of Britain the Penine Alps, forms a continuous ridge (locally, I believe, called the back lope of England), through the northern counties, from Northumberland to Derbyshire. At its northern and southern extremities (that is to say, in Northumberland, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in Derbyshire), this chain exhibits the carboniferous limestone (No. 3 of the carboniferous series). - All other parts of it are composed of the shale and grit (No. 2); round the sides of this chain the regular coal measures (No. 1) are disposed so as to constitute several distinct fields. These may be enumerated in the following' order : (a) The great coal field of Northumberland and Durham. (6) Some small detached coal fields in the north of Yorkshire. (c) The great coal field of South Yorkshire, Nottingham, and Derby. On the south, we find only (d) some successful trials for coal in the neighbourhood of Ashborne, which have, however, never been further prosecuted. On the west (e) the coal field of North Stafford. () The great Manchester, or South Lancashire coal field. (g) The North Lancashire coal field. (h) The Whitehaven coal field; between this and the preceding coal field, the transition mountains of Cumberland rise on the western side of the Penine chain, but a zone of carboniferous limestone is detached from the Penine chain, and mantles round this group. On the north-west of this zone, the last mentioned coal field reposes. () T indications of coal at the foot of the western escarpment of Cross Fell. : 2. The Central Coal Districts include four detached fields emerging from beneath the great plain of new red sandstone covering our midland counties. a. Ashby de la Zouch. b. Warwickshire, between Atherston and Nuneaton. c. South Stafford, round Dudley: the coal measures here repose on the transition limestone, Nos. 2, 3, 4, being here deficient. d. Indications of coal near the foot of the Tickey Hill; also in contact with transition limestone. 3. Western Districts, subdivided into a. North Western, including, 1. A trough of coal measures reposing on carboniferous limestone traversing the town of Anglesea. 2. A coal field resting on the same rock in Flintshire ; the carboniferous limestone range continuously on the north of the transition mountains of North Wales. b. Middle Western, or Shropshire. This includes several detached fields. 1. In the plain of Shrewsbury. 2. In Coalbrook dale (this reposes on transition limestone). 3. On the summits of the Clee Hills, and in South Shropshire. 4. Near the Abberley Hills (resting on transition limestone). c. South Western.This includes three principal basins occu 1823.] the principal Mountain Chains of Europe. 141 pied by the coal measures, and surrounded by zones of carboni. ferous limestone, the whole reposing on one vast tract of old red sandstone. Of these basins, the largest is situated in South Wales, and occupies the greaterpartof Glamorganshire, extending into Monmouthshire on the east, and Caermarthen and Pembrokeshire on the west. The next in importance occupies the south of Gloucester, and the north of Somersetshire. It is particularly interesting to the geologist, because the more recent formations sweep over a part of it; and their relations with the coal series may here be ascertained by actual sections. Coal shafts being sunk even from the lower oolite through the lias and new red sandstone into the coal measures. The third basin in point of extent is intermediate in position between the other two occupying the forest of Dean, between the Severn and the Wye. Trap rocks (principally basalt, greenstone, and amygdaloid), are associated with and overlie many of these districts, especially those of Northumberland, Staffordshire, and Shropshire. (E.) France. As we have already traced coal fields in the north of Europe, apparently connected with the central system of Scotland, so we might naturally look for the resumption of those of the southwestern English counties in the opposite regions of France. It is true, indeed, that in the south of Somerset and through Devonshire, no coal has been observed ; being probably concealed by the advance of the overlying deposits of new red sandstone which are there in close contact with the transition chains. These transition chains cross, as is well known, from Devon to the peninsula of the Cotentin in Brittany; and we find, as might be expected, a small coal field reposing against their eastern side at Litry on the south-west of Bayeux; further south, where the Loire enters between the continuation of these chains, between Angers and Nantes, are more extensive deposits of this formation. In the centre and south of France, there are some limited coal deposits lying in the valleys of the Loire, the Allier, the Creuse, and the Dordogne, the Aveyron and the Ardeche between ridges proceeding from the primitive central group connected with the Cevennes, and also on the south-east between the Cevennes and the Rhone. Several particulars concerning some of these districts may be found in the account of the geological speculations of Mr. Rouelle in the first volume of the Geographie Physique, forming part of the great Encyclopedie Methodique; the Annales des Mines for 1821 contains some information concerning of those near St. Etienne, department of the Loire, and a full account of those of the Aveyron. From the south of France we may proceed to Spain, which could not so conveniently be included in any other part of our survey. Coal is here mentioned as occurring in eight places in em a a Geological Map of [FEB. Catalonia, in three in Arragon, and one in New Castile ; but no particulars are given : a list of these localities may be found in Laborde's view of that country. (F.) Northern France, the Netherlands, and adjacent Parts of Germany. It may generally be described as extending westwards from Hardinghen near Boulogne (only a few miles from the coast of the channel) by Valenciennes, and thence up the Scheldt and down the Meuse to Eschweiler beyond Aix la Chapelle; and still further west, many of the coal districts of Northern Germany may with great probability be considered as a prolongation of it. On the east and north, the great deposits of chalk and the strata above the chalk, skirt and partially (particularly within the limits of France) overlie this tract. On the south, it is bounded by the transition ridges (of slate, greywacke, &c.) which occupy the forest of Ardennes, overhang the magnificent defile of the Rhine from Bingen to Bonn, and thence extend to the Westerwald. This tract does not consist of a single continuous coal field, but of many insulated and basin-shaped deposits of this formation, encircled by carboniferous limestone and old red sandstone. In many respects it bears, even down to the character of its picturesque scenery, a remarkable analogy to the coal districts (likewise consisting of many insulated basins) in the south-west of England. We find the most westerly point of this extended chain of coal fields at Hardinghen, in the great denudation exposing the beds beneath the chalk, which comprises the Boulonnais on the French side of the channel, and the Weald of Kent and Sussex on the English; of this we have before given a general description. These coal mines, and the quarries of the carboniferous limestone associated with them, which appear at Marquise, are situated at the very foot of the escarpment of the environing zone of chalk hills; for the outcrop of all the intermediate formations crosses this part of the denudation to the south, and, as it were, withdraws to expose the coal ; proceeding westwards, the coal is worked at several places within the general limits of the overlying chalk-formation. The environs of Aniche near Douay, and of Monchy le preux near Arras, present deposits of this nature; the mines surrounding Valenciennes are still more extensive. In the envirous of Mons, Charleroy, and Namur, in a tract, surrounding Liege; and lastly close to Eschweiler on the east of Aix la Chapelle, other very considerable coal fields are worked. A general account of this line of coal formation may be found in Omalius d'Halloy Geologie du Nord de la France, Journal des Mines, and in Von Raumer's Geoguostich Versuche ; many interesting details are also given in Villefosse sur la richesse minerale (tom. ii. p. 432 & seq.) and illustrated in the magnificent atlas of that work by sections exhibiting the contortions, &c. of the beds, and the mode of working them, from Pl. 25 to 27. Proceeding still further along the northern border of the same transition chain, against which all these deposits of coal repose, we find the more recent formations (probably of the tertiary class) intruding upon it, and concealing the coal till we cross the Rhine near Bonn. On the right bank of that river, these again recede to the north, and in this direction we again find an extensive coal field proceeding along the small river Ruhr'a little above its junction with the Rhine: on the south the beds of this coal field describe the segment of a circle, cropping out against alternations of limestone, shale, and what is called greywacke (our old red sandstone probably), which separate them from the regular transition slate on the north they are bounded by the overlying and more recent deposits. An account and plans of this district may be found in Villefosse, tom. ii. p. 424, and Pl. 24. A little on the south of the same district of transition rocks, whose northern border we have been hitherto pursuing, limited coal fields occur in the country between the Moselle and Rhine; first, between Sarrebruck and Sarre Louis on the river Sarre, and, secondly, near Waldmohr on the banks of the Glane, extending to its confluence with the Nahe : the beds of the former coal field are described as ranging south-west and northeast, and dipping north-west; they are covered with red sandstone, and also surrounded by the same formation on the points to which they rise, appearing, therefore, to repose upon it; but these appearances are very vaguely described ; “sur ces grès 1 rouges semblent quelquefois s'appuyer les couches de houille;" they are probably deceptive. A careful examination of the country between this coal field and the northern transition chain is necessary to ascertain its true relations. Villefosse, tom. i. p. 447, and Pl. 27, may be consulted on this district. Keferstein has given a brief but very clear description of this porphyry and coal district, extending on the south of the slate mountains between the Rhine and the Moselle by Zweybruck and Sarrebruck (Teutschland, &c. p. 81, No. 1). He describes the coal measures, exhibiting the ordinary members and characters of this formation as extending between Sarrebruck and Neukirch ; they contain some alternating beds of carboniferous limestone. The stratification is extremely contorted and dislocated; masses of unstratified trap rocks (comprising porphyrywacke, amygdaloid, greenstone, and basalt), are interposed among the coal measures. Agates abound in the amygdaloid. to the Quicksilver occurs both in the porphyritic conglomerate, and in the coal sandstone. “ The red sandstone (by this term, Keferstein always denotes the rothetodteliegende as distinguished from the bunte sandstein), lies in several places on these formations.” (G.) Coal near the Vosges. Coal occurs on the west side of the Vosges, but I am not acquainted with any particular description of this tract. (H.) Coal of the Alps. Traces of the coal formation are rare in this mountain range; but such bave been observed in some parts of it. M. de la Beche thus notices one remarkable instance of this kind : “ The Col de Balme, which closes the valley of Chamouny to the north-east, and separates Savoy from Switzerland, has long been known for the superb view which it commands of the valley of Chamouny, with the Mort Blanc range in one direction, and the mountains of the Valais on the other. The iron cross on the highest part of the Col, or passage, is, according to M. de Saussure, 7086 French feet (75584% English feet) above the level of the sea. The Col is composed of beds of clayslate, of limestone, and of a few thin beds of sandstone. The rocks of the Col de Balme have been called primitive by M. Ebel, in his Bau der Erde en dem Alpen-Gebirge, but were with more justice named secondary by M. de Saussure. The beds which compose them seem to be a continuation of limestones, which are remarked in patches in the valley of Chamouny, and which probably once occupied the whole length of the valley. “While crossing the Col de Balme, in the autumn of 1819, I picked up two portions of the thin beds of sandstone abovementioned, which I found to contain vegetable impressions precisely similar to what have been termed coal plants, because they are usually found in coal formations. But I tried in vain to find these fossil plants in situ, many parts of the Col being too precipitous to allow of my approaching them.” From further conversation on the subject with M. de la Beche, I am persuaded that this spot presents å trough of nearly vertical beds belonging to the true coal formation squeezed in, as it were, between the primitive ridges. Keferstein notices traces of coal associated with porphyry on the south side of the Alps near Botso. Humboldt also notices these coal deposits : they are on the banks of the Adige between Sais and St. Peter, (I.) Coal of Osnabruck. Pursuing the line of Northern Germany, a tract containing |