Report of Proceedings of Sub-Committee for constructing a Geological Section of the Yorkshire Coal Field

Abstract

Mr. Morton then made a verbal report of the proceedings and suggestions of a Sub-Committee appointed to consider the best means of constructing a Geological Section on the eastern side of the Penine Chain, and to prepare a plan of operations in conjunction with the Manchester Geological Society, the members of which at their last annual meeting having resolved to continue the section forward to the westward across the Lancashire coal-field. Mr. Morton dwelt on the general and local importance of such sections. There were no accurate sections on a large scale across the island in this latitude, and he considered that the completion of even one section across Yorkshire and Lancashire would throw so much light upon the structure and stratification of the two coal-fields, and of the ridge of hills which divides them, that great benefit would be conferred on the geological public generally, and on the members of these two local societies in particular. Three different lines of section had been proposed, but it was desirable to concentrate all the energies of the Society upon one of them. Such a section should be carried in a north-easterly direction, this being the line of greatest dip of the strata; and its latitude should not be further north than Leeds, nor further south than Sheffield; otherwise it would be beyond the limits of the Yorkshire coal-field altogether. Perhaps the best line would be an intermediate one; that is, in the latitude of Barnsley, for the stratification of this coal-field ...