Investigation of the geologic problems connected with the English Channel is no new matter. Setting aside all speculations deriving from the study of its coast-line, the first serious examination of the bed of the Channel was made by R. A. C. Austen, and his results published in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, 13 June, 1849. Although, as he states, he had examined the sea-bed with dredge and sounding-lead he has little to say as to its lithology. But none the less his work is a notable contribution to our knowledge, and his conclusions bear well the test of subsequent discoveries. Following Austen, in 1871, Delesse published his Lithologie des Mers de France, in which considerable attention is given to the Channel; and the lithology of its coastal deposits, and to some extent of the sea-bed, is considered in detail. But, valuable as this work is, its chief interest lies in the information given as to the nature of the sea-bottom, the grade and extent of the varying deposits. Austen and Delesse alike, and in agreement, point out the large areas of the Channel bed which are occupied by stones, boulders, and pebbles of some size, and argue on much the same lines as to the conditions which have formerly existed there.