I. Indications op the geological structure of a region, derivable from the specialties of
its Orography.

1. From any complete section, either of a mountain chain, or across a continent, the structure of the

prolongation of that chain or continent, may generally le safely inferred.

Since the convulsions or changes, that interrupt or cut through mountain chains and continents,
are, for the most part, posterior in date to the formation of these chains or continents, the series
of rocks of which they are composed may generally be expected to stretch across the interruption.
For instance, almost all the straits and channels of the ocean are, like the beds of rivers, only clefts,
or cavities of erosion ; on which account we usually recognise on both sides the same strata. Thus,
in the north-west of Ireland and the Orkneys, we find the formations of the Highlands of Scotland;
the north-east of Sicily corresponds with southern Calabria ; Corsica is prolonged into Sardinia ; the
same rocks form the two shores of the English Channel, as they do those of the Red Sea, and the
opposite sides of the Strait of Gibraltar ; the formations of Turkey in Europe must pass in the same
manner into Asia Minor ; those of the Crimea into the Caucasus ; those of Eastern Persia into Beloo-
chistan ; and those of Cuba into Jamaica. Thus also, the Strait of Behring separates similar ancient
beds; and that of Bab-el Mandeb is a mere volcanic rift, which has torn the principal chain of
Central Africa from the old crest of Southern Arabia. The greater number of our large islands are
connected in the same manner, and for the same reason, with continents. For instance, the transi-
tion and schistous rocks of Norway, are prolonged, under the sea, to Spitzbergen ; the formations of
the Oural Mountains stretch towards Novaia Zemlia : the transition series of Russia is found in the
Baltic, in Dagoe, and Oesel; and the recent secondary rocks of Eastern Spain reappear in the Balearic
Islands. Similar relations exist between the ancient chain of Olympus and Pelion, and part of the
islands of the Greek Archipelago ; between the secondary system of the Peloponnesus, and the Isle
of Crete ; between the coasts of Asia Minor, and Cyprus, Rhodes and its other littoral isles, &c. &c.
Much light might thus be obtained regarding the configuration of considerable portions of the hottom
of the ocean, as well as with respect to their geological structure—a study as interesting and impor-
tant in reference to the geodesy of the globe, as the careful measurement of its whole accessible sur -
face ; but in the present imperfect state of our knowledge, an attempt at definite delineation were in
this case hardly justifiable.^

2. The correspondence of mountain chains, as to direction, evinces similitude in geological

constitution.

This most important fact in the structure of the Earth, presents itself under two aspects.—

A. When the chains are parallel.

The law, in this case, is a corollary from an ingenious theory of the Elevation of mountains (see
parts B and C of this disquisition) ; but altogether independently of theory, it is a certain geological
truth, that generally the same structure may be predicated of parallel chains, separated by arms of
the sea, straits, or valleys, by igneous deposits, secondary or tertiary basins. Take, as examples, the
farther Hebrides, and the north of Scotland ; Cornwall, Brittany, and the north-west of Spain ;

Aveden, and Finland ; Marocco, and the south of Spain ; California and adjacent America; the
Peninsula of Malacca, and Sumatra, &c. &c. But if the proposition is thus true in all countries
which have been examined geologically, we may trust to it in the case of districts still unexplored,
and receive what it enables us to predict. "When, however, chains are not well known geogra-
phically, we may fall into error, through mistakes with regard to their exact direction?

B. When the chains have identity of direction, although not parallel.

On account of the sphericity of the Earth, ranges of mountains distant from each other will
not—although they stand in the same relation to the north or south points—be^ara^^eZ .• that they
correspond in geological structure, nevertheless, the phenomena of the following characteristic
groups prove:—

a. Direction, W. to E. nearly. Many remarkable chains belonging to this group are clearly
identical in geological constitution, viz., the principal chain of the Alps ; chain south of Transyl-
vania ; the Balkan ; Taurus; Paropamisus ; Hindoo Koosh ; Kuenlun ; Himalaya ; Celestial
Mountains, (fee. &c.

h. Direction, N. to S. nearly. Distant chains, stretching from north to south, also exhibit an
identity of ancient and transition formations, of igneous deposits, of metalliferous veins, and, in most
cases, of certain dependent secondary strata, viz.: Certain crests in the north of England ; part of
the Norwegian Mountains ; the banks of the Middle Rhine ; Central France ; Corsica ; the Oural;
the chain of Kuznetsk or Western Altai; the chain of Soliman, &c. &o.

c. Direction, N.E.,S.W. nearly. Striking geological resemblances here again meet us, not-
withstanding the distance between the corresponding ridges. As examples, we have the moiintains
of Ireland and Scotland, of part of Scandinavia and Finland ; chains on the banks of the Lower
Rhine ; in Saxony ; Bohemia ; the south of Spain, and very many others. The whole of this group
is characterised by the same ancient schistous rocks, the same transition formations, the same por-
phyritic or dioritio masses, and the same description of metalliferous veins.

d. Direction, N.W. to S.E. nearly. Lying in this direction are the following mountains,
widely scattered over the earth, but closely corresponding in their upper, secondary, and tertiary
deposits—their peculiar igneous and metamorphic rocks : parts of the north-west of Germany, and
of the Apennines; the lower parts of the Spanish Pyrenees ; western chains of the Greek Peninsula;
Eastern Carpathians; chains of Crimea and Caucasus; ridges bordering the valley of the Red Sea,
or rather its granitoid and schistous banks; part of the mountains of Syria; a chain between
Mesopotamia and Persia ; chains west of Herat; others in Tartaria; the Western Himalaya;
Karakorum and Katschi; mountains in Cutch, ridges in Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba.

e. Direction, N.N.W., E.S.E. nearly. This fifth group, composed of crystalline schists and
massive crystalline rocks, comprises the Riesengebirge ; Rhodope ; Central Pyrenees ; the Ballons of
Vosges ; mountains in Brittany, Western Alleghanies ; ridges in Canada, south of the Great Lakes,
(kc. &c.

/. Direction, E.N.E., TT.^. W. nearly. The chain of Vindhya in the north of Hindostan ;
certain chains at the southern extremity of Africa; some in Spain ; and also the Hundsriick,—pre-
sent, along with uniformity of direction, a corresponding structure, chiefly of transition rocks.

g. Direction, N.N.E., S.S.W. nearly. This more numerous group consists of part of the
mountains of Northern Norway ; the Western Alps ; Western Carpathians ; chain between Tran-
sylvania and Hungary ; certain chains in Spain ; ridges of South Calabria and in Sicily ; the high
Atlas of Marocco; certain chains in the Andes of New Grenada; coast chains in Brazil; chains in
Chinese Daouria and Mantchouria. All these exhibit the cretaceous formation, upheaved on
crystalline schists and granitoid rocks; in some places even the tertiary soil is disturbed.

h. Direction, F.N. W., S.S.E. nearly. This group is composed of similar very ancient rocks,
and includes the two great chains of Arctic America and their parallel dependencies ; part of the
Andes, and of the Cordilleras of Western Brazil; the Western Ghauts ; chains in the Peninsula
beyond the Ganges ; the Bolor, &c. &c.

M. Boue has given extended lists under each of these groups, and he might have added many
more ; but enough is adduced to exhibit the existence and illustrate the character of an apparently
primal law amongst the revolutions of the Earth ; and to enable the geologist to venture, in com-
parative security, opinions concerning the structure of countries that have not been individually
explored.

3. Inferences from the different heights of Mountain Chains.

When a lofty ridge is fianked by parallel chains much lower than itself, as well as by plains,
we shall generally find that it consists of an ancient central mass, with associated secondary and
tertiary formations. Thus, owing to the similarity of the physical aspects of the Alps and those of
the mountains of Central Asia, we are enabled to presume that the latter—like the former—exhibit
central chams of crystalline schist without transition rocks, with lateral chains of recent secondary
masses ; then small hills of molasse or tertiary rocks separating these from the plains, or the basins
of great rivers ; and finally, of isolated tertiary basins watered by streams. Now, this is exactly
the arrangement of the masses in question ; and the discovery has astonished those who give no
credit to geological predictions, and who have never observed the majestic harmony of the geo-
pphical distribution of the difiPerent formations over the globe. Other striking examples may be
found connecting the physical and geological geography of Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Arabia;
and also very abundantly in the two Americas.

W «nninrlin,o-s-mdeed bv far tor> i4w n.n^ i % habit of considering it as

! larger

artificM maps of the bottom of the seas of Eijope, and of soW^^^

near some coasts, of great and pecuhar importance to navigation. But how miT>v rWn . ™rtace, especially

even to these very general deductions V And how many important proSiSJ^u^r^^^^ f certainty

undertaken? wLl for instance, must geodesy and geolo|y becoi^e pre^oS'rbc^raWelo^^r^^^^
following subjects ?-the identity, or only the approximation, of contour between the rSiefs of tL^.nT^^t. nr,d S
the bottom of the ocean ; the direction, branching, distribution, and conflgiirationXobabW^^^^^ continents and of
marine chains and gi-oups of elevations; the probability of the non-existence of

in their places, of vast crateriform basins; the sort of defiles, slopes, and escarpments as well rti! Un rf-
submarine valleys or the beds of currents ; the knowledge of the parts of the bottom of the ocem whSh^n rf® °b bW
not covered by deposits ; the appreciation of those geological formations there, which of course can never be • h ■
the knowledge of th eir distribution and their fossils ; the distinction of formations which probably have never p^ H'
from such as have passed the surface of the waves to be again engulfed ; the diflFerent deposits which have formprP
still arc forming, at different depths, or near the shore ; the diversity of these last in different zones and elir^+P®
the globe, &c. &c. As the waters cover the greater part of the earth, it is manifest that, even were the exist °
continents thoroughly studied, we would still be very far removed from a satisfactorj' acquaintance with our

^ It is necessary to remark that, in all such speculations, the element of direction must be accurately and iint
merely approsimatelj', detemiined. But, as was long ago shown by the illustrious Humboldt, there are several
features connected with direction that have been confounded; only one of which is connected with the theory of the
age of the elevation and the similitude of the structure of mountains. Every chain contains five " Ugnes directrices "
distinguished and defined as follows: -

1. The longi tudinal axis of the entire chain, or of the whole upheaved ridge.

2. The line passing through the culminating points, or the maxima of height.

3. The line following the edges of the upheaved strata, or the axis of the fissure.

4. The line which divides the waters, or the watershed.

5. The line separating two contiguous formations in any horizontal section of them.

Now, the true line of direction is the first and third;—strictly spealdng, perhaps the third only. It is the line
along which that force has been exerted to which the elevation is due ; and, in most cases, may be that lying at right
amjles to the direction of the dip of the upheaved strata. It were folly to pretend that the direction of the chains
referred to in the text has been ascertained with even an approach to the suitable accuracy ; and hence one important
cause of the diversity of conclusions arrived at, by eminent geologists, regarding their place and age.

4. Indications afforded hy the general aspect of mountains, or of their escarpments.

This feature of mountain chains forcibly attracts the notice of the traveller who has au eye to
the picturesque; and valuable geological inferences may frequently be drawn from his descriptive
sketches. Thus, blunt cones with craters indicate volcanoes; a series of peaks like a saw, denotes
dolomites ; rounded heads like the tops of nails, characterise calcareous rocks ; triangular points,
slates or quartziferous schists; needles, crystalline schists ; capricious twistings and crumplings,
serpentines and trachytes ; pyramidal forms, phonolites, &c. &c.: thin and dark-looking walls inti-
mate the presence of basalts, trachytes or traps, as on certain coasts of Greenland, some of the Arctic
islands, and the north-west of Australia. Rocks broken up by the weather into roundish masses
are granites or grits, or, more rarely, traps. Many other suggestive details might be deduced from
the natural configuration of rocks.

II. General Geological principles connected with the Hydrography op a Country.

1. The phenomena of rivers are highly instructive in theoretical Geology, although they do not

yield very definite laws. Their chief hearings and importance are as follows :—

a. The different Formations present striking contrasts as to their potamography, mainly
owing to the very different proportion of surface, occupied by their valleys. The river courses of the
crystalline schistous soil are characterised by their great extent—the number of their bifurcations
and of their undulations ; such, for instance, are those courses among the central Alps, in Brittany,
in Brazil, among the chains between China, Tonquin, and Cochin-China. In calcareous soils such
courses are less frequent and less undulating; many of the valleys are dry, or have waters which
soon lose themselves—rivers even being engulfed beneath their cliffs. The potamography of Western
Arabia denotes, of itself, the prevalence of a calcareous structure. The hydrography of the tertiary
basins likewise differs much from that of the chalk, of the Jurassic formations, or of the secondary
sandstones.

h. Great Rivers have, for the most part, at their mouths, extensive deltas of alluvium—
usually traversed by several of their branches; so that, from our knowledge of the nature of the
deltas of the grand rivers of Europe, as well as of several others belonging to other continents, such
as the Nile, the Senegal, the Niger, the Euphrates, the Indus, the Ganges, the Volga, the Lena, the
Yenesei, the Obi, the Mackenzie, Mississippi, Oyapok, and the La Plata—we may conclude with equal
certainty that similar alluviums characterise districts at the mouths of the Amour, the Sir, the
Kistna, the Godavery, &c., as well as the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Rio del Norte, &c., in America.
There are, however, distinctions in regard to these deltas. Rivers that escape suddenly from an
escarpment of rocks bounding the sea-shore, have no deltas, properly so called, but carry their allu-
vium on into the sea, and deposit it beyond the line of the shore. Such, for instance, is the case
with most of the American streams flowing into the Pacific (high mountains bounding its coasts
in almost every part), while the contrary holds with those which flow from the same continent into
the Atlantic Ocean.

c. As tertiary deposits also accompany the courses or beds of all great rivers behind whose deltas
or embouchures considerable plains or extensive valleys are situated, we may infer that such deposits
exist in many districts hitherto surveyed only by the geographer. Thus, with little risk of error, we
may map down the locality of tertiary formations in Africa, along the Senegal, the Gambia, the
Orange River, the Zambeze, &c.; in Asia, on the Kizil Irmak, the Kur, the Euphrates, the Amour,
the Sir, the Indus, the Ganges, the Bramapoutra, the Irrawady, the Menam, the Cambodia, the Sang
Koi, the Blue and Yellow Rivers, in China, and at least on the Obi in Siberia. The fact, indeed, is
already beyond doubt with regard to the more important streams. But analogy entitles us to go
still farther. The great alluvial and tertiary plains of the lower Danube, of the Pampas, and the
lower Mississippi, have their distinct analogous on the banks of the Amazon, of the lower Ganges,
and in the country between Pekin and the Yellow River ; and from the nature of the deposits in the
first-named localities, the fossils which characterize them, and the mode of their formation, we are
induced to infer similar facts in regard to the kindred beds in those other countries which are much
less known.

cl. It seems probable, a priori, that all tertiary basins on the shore, especially such as have no
barrier toward the sea, include marine formations, or lagunes of salt water, rather than deposits
resulting solely from fresh water ; whilst the contrary is probable in the case with such basins far
inland ; and one may predict, with considerable certainty, where these salt-water deposits will be
found, and where the detritus of ancient inland seas or great lakes. Thus it will one day be disco-
vered that the African Sahara, with its salt deposits, is the bottom of an ancient Mediterranean Sea;
and that the other tertiary deposits on the shores of that continent are marine. The desert north
of the chain of Kuenlun, and that of Gobi, are, on the contrary, for the most part fresh-water forma-
tions, &c. &c.—The basins of almost all plains which are elevated, or remote from the sea, are tertiary
deposits of fresh-water origin ; but, previous to drawing this inference as to any unexamined basin,
it is necessary that one examine with care the levels of the neighbouring gorges, or communications
with the seas. In the case, for Instance, of the Hungarian-Viennese basin, it is at once evident from
the surrounding levels, that when it was occupied with water, the Black Sea probably beat against
the base of the Walaco-Servian chain, and must have communicated with the interior sea of Hun-
gary by a large arm, occupying the valleys of Timok and Moratscha in Servia: and so of other
localities.^

e. Abrupt changes, in the courses of rivers, are distinct indications of variation in the nature of
the formations through which they flow, as well as of movements undergone by these. This law
holds with small rivulets as well as large streams; for, if a rivulet meets a dyhe, or, in any way, passes
from one formation to another, its course is changed ; and, precisely in this manner, the great bend-
ings of all large streams seem brought about. Hence valuable indications from the course of the
Niger, from the rivers of upper Hindostan, of Tibet and Tartary, from the bendings of the Yellow
River, from the twists of the Rio del Norte in New Mexico, &c. &c. The operation and universality
of this law are illustrated by a glance at the map, where the connection of the bending of its course
with a change of strata is emphatically exhibited in the case of every important stream.

2. The existence of lakes in,a Country,their form, and the system of rivers connected with them,

constitute another source of information as to its geology. We have five well-marhed and
easily-discriminated species of lakes.

a. Besides those small lakes, characteristic of every mountainous country, which are merely
collections of water in accidental hollows, we have crateriform lakes, arising in peculiar actions, and
belonging exclusively to certain formations. If these are in plains or valleys, without visible outlet,
they must be regarded as the result of sinkings {ecroidements) in arenaceo-gypsous masses, secondary
or tertiary ; but if they are surrounded by a crest of elevations, they are true volcanic craters, having
sometimes an outlet, as the Lake Pavin in Auvergne. Thus, if some small lakes in the steppes of
the Kirghiz are probably analogous to the lakes of depression (sinking) of Eisleben or Pyrmont; the
trachytic lakes of Laach, of Bolsena, St Anne in Transylvania, of Gondar, of Urumiah in Asia, and
of Nicaragua, are manifestly ancient volcanic cavities, somewhat increased by ecroulements. This
description of hollows may have been formed amid the granitic, sienitic, porphyritic, and serpentine
eruptions, as well as amid the trachytes ; but their preservation amid those older rocks is much
rarer ; they are there more or less broken,—a fact which much reduces the number that can now be
recognised.

h. Lakes, in the crystalline schistous formation, have usually a very elongated form ; they are
surrounded with narrow bays, have inclinations more or less steep, and sometimes contain islands.
These hikes are, in fact, masses of water filling the longitudinal or transverse clefts in the crystalline
schists; and their shape is that of these clefts.

c. The lakes of the transition series are characterised by an oblong form, an undulating con-
tour, very gentle slopes, their singular isolation in the midst of a country little elevated, or even
flat, and also by their neighbourhood to hilly regions and the crj^stalline schists. They are so
abundant in the globe, that an entire chain of them may be traced round the whole Northern
Hemisphere. All the lakes which traverse North America are in this formation ; and a series,
very varied in form, stretches from north-west to south-east along the two slopes of the crystalline
chain, which, with the Rocky Mountains, forms the chief mass of the northern continent. The same
thing occurs in Europe and Asia, It is probable that the destruction of much of the transition series
has greatly altered the contours of the Baltic, the White Sea, the Caspian, the Black Sea, and even
of the Mediterranean; for their banks often exhibit crystalline schists, and, here and there only,
the early sedimentary rocks that may once have covered them. The forms of these seas recall,
besides, the shapes of the great lakes of North America, the figure of the Baltic resembling that of
the Slave Lake, while Hudson Bay is not unlike the Black Sea, &c. Now, if it is proved that the
American lakes have chiefly originated in accidents occurring within the transition series, may it
not be concluded that these seas had a similar origin ?

d. The lakes—often very deep—in jurassic and cretaceous districts, have characters altogether
peculiar ; some, occupying the bottom of cavities that have fallen in, very much resemble craters, as
the Lake of Joux, or of Presba in Turkey in Europe. The Neapolitan Apennines contain numbers
of this description, as in the neighbourhood of the Phlegrean Fields, &c., which, unless from the cir-
cumstance of the cliffs around them being secondary rocks, one would fail to distinguish from the
openings of old volcanoes. Others in the same formation are really chasms engulfing rivers-
situated generally at the base of cliffs, but also at the bottom of valleys. In such cases, the subter-
ranean canals have no outlets sufficiently capacious for all the waters received ; which accumulate
at the surface and form lakes, whose size varies with the seasons. A third species peculiar to recent
secondary calcareous soil, consists of those great lakes filling deep cavities in the calcareous mountains
of the Alps and other chains, or at their meeting with the tertiary basins—as in the case of the cele-
brated lakes in Lombardy. All these—formed by the cleaving or destruction of the calcareous rocks,

_are distiix^uished from such as arise from ecroidements of the arenaceo-gypsous secondary or tertiary

formation, by the fact that they are surrounded by steep cliffs or enclosed in shut-up basins ; whilst
lakes of the other kind are found only in plains or amid an undulating country, without any
engirdling crest.

e. Lastly, the lakes of the plains are merely cavities of very slight depth, where the water is
kept in by dykes, or merely by alluvium and sandy downs ; in the latter case, they are a species of

3 It is necessary to observe, that the mere existence of a large basin is not always sufficient ground for the conclu-
sion that it is occupied by a secondary or tertiary soil; for a very ancient formation, whose constituents are quite
different, may assume the form of a lofty platform or plateau in the midst of mountains. Examples^ are to oe naa ot
such plateaux formed of highly inclined schists, cut horizontally, as if with a knife ; for in the ^^^^^^

Brittany. Some flat .,teppess.A composed of horizontal secondary limestones, and some on tt® banks of tiie Or noco
of secondary sandstones; in no wise to be confounded with tertiary nagelfiuhs. . Russia m Europe fmnishes a strilpng
example of the possibility of being deceived when deducing geological conclusions from the existence of low basins ;
for the enormous plains of that country are mostly composed of immense hor^zontav beds belonging to the transition,
epoch. Nevertheless, in cases like this the related circumstances easily enable us to ascertain the tine state of things.

Exceptions are probably caused by the clcfts or subsidences of

III.—Intimations of geological structure, derived from the phenomena op Deserts.

Among the facts of physical geography of greatest importance towards deciphering the geology
of a country, must be ranked the locality of deserts, or of places where water is rare, and vegetation
almost or wholly wanting. Deserts, properly so called, infallibly point out districts of the globe
into which, at a comparatively recent geological epoch, our present seas were prolonged, in great
gulfs or straits; or which were occupied by actual viediterraneans that have now disappeared
wholly or in part, and that gradually changed into fresh-water lakes previous to their escape or
being dried up. It is, in fact, a physical impossibility that a true desert can expose any ancient
formation; for every district of that description must, earlier or later, have been covered by a
modern deposit, more or less fit for sustaining vegetation. Our marine sandy beaches, indeed, are
the only formations now in progress, at all identical with deserts ; and it is only the tertiary forma-
tion, whether of salt or fresh water, and especially the arenaceo cretaceous system, which, by means
of the variety of its soils, can originate expanses of sand interspersed with fertile oases. These
facts suffice to demonstrate the modern origin of deserts in general, and fix, also, the comparative
age of the red and white sandstones of Northern Africa. We deduce, further, that the formation
of a desert presupposes the neighbourhood of certain soils, the presence of certain marine currents,
and especially a position between great ancient chains of mountains which the water could abrade,
in order to form extensive alluviums with the siliceous portion of their structure. To apply these
conceptions we find in Egypt, in Nubia, in Dongola, towards the south of Sahara, in the regency
of Tripoli, in Arabia Petrea, and Arabia Felix, and in Persia, the inferior cretaceous formation
giving rise to moving sands and to rocks of friable sandstone, like those seen in Saxon Switzerland ;
whilst in the rest of Sahara and of Persia, in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, on the banks of the lower
Indus, in Central Asia, and Western Australia, the tertiary strata, or even the alluviums, have the
chief share in the production of oceans of sand, interspersed here and there with saline effervescences.

jY_Deductions from the mineralogical and palieontological characters of a Country,

These characteristics are very determinate indications of the nature of the formations of a
country ; for each mineral has a special and distinctive position among the series of rocks; and
every great group of formations is so distinctly characterised by peculiar fossils, that intimations
regarding either—far more, regarding both conjoined—may be taken as a positive and certain index.

a. The topography of individual minerals, united to a study of their natural positions,
acquires, from this mode of considering them, an importance of which few travellers have yet seemed
aware; for even single lists of the metals of a country, or of its exchangeable products, might
enable us often to raise the veil that covers its unexplored geology. For the same reason the com-
position of the alluvium of larger rivers may become an expressive indication of the formations
constituting the neighbouring mountain chains.

h. It is unnecessary to refer to the use the geologist may make of collections, or even of single
specimens, of fossils. It is enough to recall the conclusions that Von Buch was enabled to draw
from the examination of some fossil shells of America, and those which are intimated by the pre-
sence of certain crustacea on the coast of Malabar, Tranquebar, Coromandel, China, Japan, Java, the
Philippines, Borneo, and other islands in the Malay Sea. If the CoMcer macrochelus of China, and
the Portunns leucodon of Manilla, denote the existence in these countries of a recent tertiary calca-
reous formation, such probably as that of Java; the Grapsus diibius, the G-onoplax incisa, and
emarginata, are fossils of the tertiary clays of the Sub-Apennine epoch in Hindostan and the Sea of
Malacca.

c. The subject of erratic blocks may be noticed under this head : for although these come
generally from a distance, they are pregnant with information. Thus, the fact remarked by all
travellers, that such blocks are scattered over North America in a line from north-west to south-
east, from Mackenzie River to the Alleghanies and the Hudson, is sufficient ground fortlie presump-
tion that, in the neighbourhood of this train of debris, there are very high chains ; and that, to the
east of the Rocky Mountains, there must be a vast hollow along which these blocks were rolled or
floated. In fact, a low band or zone from north-west to south-east, is found between the Rocky
Mountains, and another schistous chain to the west of Hudson Bay: and all American geologists
ao-ree that the blocks have come down in that direction. But the nature of these stoTies is manifestly
an index of the constitution of the mountains from which they were originally broken off. Other
blocks, not transported, but derived from the decomposition of rocks, yield likewise their instruction.
Thus, the masses of native copper, found here and there near the great lakes of North America, reveal
the presence of traps and serpentines which have been in part destroyed.

d. Information regarding a few separate formations in a district, is often of signal impor-
tance towards unfolding the leading features of its complete geology, because we interpret these by
the analogy of the structure of known basins ; and the importance of this key increases in propor-
tion as the basins to he studied are large in extent, and the strata, therefore, more fully developed.
Thus in China, as soon as we have learned from travellers and mineralogical specimens that the
great united basin of the Blue and Yellow Rivers is surrounded by chains of crystalline schists
and granitoid rocks, we might be inclined to expect its interior to be occupied by the other more
recent formations. But this supposition seems, at first sight, contradicted by the fact, that at the
south of the Blue River a considerable portion of the maritime country is formed of these very
crystalline schists and granitoid rocks—a branch from the central chain of the Asiatic Alps ; whilst
an ancient schistous formation constitutes the promontory separating the Yellow Sea from the
Gulf of Pe-che-le. On the other hand, excellent coal, employed in certain provinces of China,
indicates extensive transition deposits, towards the north-east of this empire, towards the south-
east, and near Nankin ; and, lastly, it is easy to recognise the secondary formations by certain
minerals coming from the south ; whilst others prove that tertiary formations abound through the
flat countries. We thus meet with the entire series of formations known in Europe : they do not,
however, appear to be arranged in one cavity, but in two, viz., that of the Yellow and that of the
Blue River,—these being divided by a ridge of ancient crests. Resting, then, on such isolated data,
is it not probable, according to the analogy of the formations of Europe, that these bands of deposits
turn around the two basins referred to, and that the secondary Chinese soil stretches towards the
north, to join that which forms the Asiatic Continent opposite the Japanese Archipelago, as well
as the western coast of Kamtchatka 1 In the same manner, the geology of Northern Asia, as yet so
little known, may be disentangled. We find there two great secondary basins—that of the Obi
and Irtish, and of the Lena, separated by a broad ridge of crystalline schists, which is bounded by
the transition rocks tliat form the northernmost promontories of Siberia ; to the west of the Obi is
the Oural wall, and to the east of the Lena, a mountainous triangle of schists and transition beds
To the south lies a series of mountains of various heights, obstructing pcrfect communication with
any southern basin, unless near the higher courses of the Tobol and the Ischim. But secondary
formations, particularly the middle ones and the jurassic, probably occupy these basins. Consider-
able alluviums, too, and even tertiary beds, here and there, must cover these List,—being chiefly met
with in the basin of the Obi. In respect to South America, similar analogies induce us to think
that, if transition rocks, covered by alluvium and tertiary deposits, occupy the narrowest part of that
ancient strait of the ocean which separated the Andes from the former island of Brazil, some

secondary rocks accompany, at least in a few places, the formations that bound—either wholly or
partially—the schistous crystalline soil of the Andes, Patagonia,, Chile, and Peru.

_Deductions concerning doubtful points in the geology of a country, from the labours,

leading facts, and various civilizations op Humanity.

1. The various labours of civilization are closely connected with the geology of the country
-wherein they are performed. If, for instance, we are discussing a country of low hills or of plains,
surrounded by chains of crystalline schists (such as part of Asia Minor), a doubt would remain
whether the heights are secondary or tertiary ;but itmight safely be inferred that the latter is the case,
if the heights are cut by great roads or modes of communication. Wherever canals exist, they may
be held as indications of a low division-line of the waters, and of the presence of tertiary formations.
The Isthmus of Suez and its traces of an ancient canal, are an example ; and similar considerations
strengthen the conclusion, that a vast tertiary and alluvial soil constitutes the plain intersected by
the great canal from Nankin to Pekin. All the formations, indeed, even when they rise into lofty
crests, leave passages for roads ; but whilst in an elevated crystalline or secondary chain, roads are
rare-^communication being there restricted to certain coZs,—quite the contrary is the case among
transition or secondary horizontal rocks, and especially amidst low tertiary hills. Still further ; as
the number of towns and villages increases, almost in a geometrical progression, as we pass from the
ancient to the recent soils, the means of communication must also augment according to the same
series of formations ; likewise, almost every capital or very large city is built on tertiary soil, or on
continental or maritime alluviums. Certain descriptions of civilization, even, result from the pro-
ducts of the soil where they are developed—as in the case of mining districts, and their associated
peculiar industries ; so that researches regarding the description of civilization characterizing a
country geologically unknown, may not unfrequently guide the inquirer to its causes, and to a
general opinion concerning the formations that prevail there. We receive valuable information, too,
when antiquarian travellers speak of the caves of troglodytes, and of excavations either for dwellings
or temples. It may be at once inferred, that these are calcareous caverns merely enlarged, or holes
dug in friable, probably tertiary sandstones, or in basaltic tuffs, trachytes, pumice, or even, as with
some of the pagodas of India, out of granitoid rocks. And some single and apparently indifferent
and unconnected detail, will oftcvi enable us to choose among these various possibilities.

2. M. Boue dwells at considerable length on the effect of the physical conformation of continents
in modifying the intercourse, mixture, emigrations, and warlike enterprises of different tribes and
nations; bat as these phenomena rather appear to receive elucidation from physical geography, than
to he capable, in our present state of knowledge, of throwing definite light on the structure, whether
geographical or geological, of unknown portions of the globe, we omit his observations. There is
more direct interest, however, in his speculations concerning the distribution of the varieties of the
human species over the earth's surface ; for although not prepared to assent to his hypothesis
regarding a diversity of Race, we find no difficulty in agreeing, that the farther back we go into the
twilight of the past, the probability is the more forcibly impressed, that the seats of the earliest
discernible civilizations were the mountainous parts of the several continents, from which the
diverse tribes descended and diffused themselves gradually, as geological changes permitted the
lowlands to be made habitable: so that the history of that diffusion is inseparably connected
with the most important of recent geological changes, and—rightly interpreted—may become their
index.

a. The early seats of the Negro race were unquestionably in the African triangle south of
the Sahara and Nubia—a circumstance that confirms the geogenic conclusion, that this race was
then separated from the White varieties on the north, by a vast sea; which certainly would not
have been so likely, had Negroes been found on the southern coasts of the present Mediterranean.
On the retreat of the great ocean filling the Sahara, &e., the population descended from the heights
of Abyssinia, along the banks of the Nile, as far as its Delta ; and, by intermixture with the inhabit-
ants of Arabia and Hindostan, formed the great Hindoo-Negro people, by whom the Egyptian
civilization was unfolded. The mass of the Negro race filled up Africa soutli of the Sahara, taking
on the civilization of the Bochisman, the Hottentot, and the true Negro of the centre, in obedience
to those cliniateric differences which we find acting with the same effect on the Botocudo of
Brazil or the Red Indians of the north, and their compatriots in the Andes of Peru and the Mexican
plateau. The fact of another black or bronze race being found in part of Australasia, along with
peculiar animals and vegetables (where, however, the fossil bones of the elephant are found mingled
with those of the kangaroo), seems to fix a geological date (in units of our human historv) for the
separation of this continent from Asia.

h. The varieties of the White and Yellow races—their differences of form, character, of lan-
guage, and distribution—are wholly interwoven with geographical features which define the extent
of their dwellings, and the diversity of their zones ; and, with the important geogenic fact that the
continental masses they inhabit have always continued more or less united, notwithstanding the
existence of great mediterranean seas that have now disappeared. The enormous ridge of Asia, the
comparative insignificance of the Oural, the hollow between that chain and the Caucasus, the
dependence of the north of Africa on its great Mediterranean system, seem to be the chief causes of
the dispersion of these fine races. Their varieties result quite naturally from the great number of
chains from east to west in the continents they occupy ; and from the numerous isolations pro-
duced by the intersection of chains from, north to south ; the former impressing the character of the
race, and the latter, originating small divergencies—the effects of time and climate. All existing
researches relative to the languages of the white races are favourable to the general ideas now
expressed ; for the myths of the Chinese, Hindoos, and Egyptians, speak with equal force concerning
the descent of the populations from elevated localities, and their gradual occupation of countries
formerly under the waters.

c. In the phenomenon of the Esquimaux, living within the circle of polar ice, and in a constant
struggle with nature, we discern elements for a final geogenic conclusion. This singular family, so
superior to the Negroes, must certainly have become associated with the unfortunate country they
now inhabit, in consequence of terrestrial changes of great importance. There are no highlands near
them ; nor any favourable centres from which they could have spread ; and our only probable con-
jecture is, that they arrived there when the climate was less rigorous than now. To what epoch,
then, can this event belong % Without doubt, the vegetables of the polar transition strata indicate
a period at which the temperature of the poles was tropical; and when, instead of the light of the
Sun, they must, during their long nights, have had some such equivalent as Auroras far more frequent,
more brilliant, and more enduring than those of our time. This peculiar condition of Nature at the
poles, must have changed by insensible gradations ; but there seems reason to conclude that, even
after the tertiary epoch, a distribution of iieat quite different from the present one prevailed over
the globe. The remarkable changes that have occurred in Greenland and Iceland during historical
times, induce us to infer, that even at a period not far antecedent, the polar regions were not so
frigid as to drive back any human being. Now, the abundance of fishes in these seas, the existence
of useful animals, and the absence of beasts of prey, would—in conjunction with a climate generally
mild—have quite sufficed to attract inhabitants ; who, once acclimatized, jnay have gradually
become fitted for those hard conditions which, through effect of slow cosmical changes, have grown
up around them, and which they now endure. Geology and geognosy thus do not tend to maintain
all the distinctions of the zoologist; but rather contract the number of types from which varieties
have sprung, as effects of change and time.

I. Vbjidek. ....
11. Finisterbe.....

III, Longmtnd.....

IV. Moebihan.....

Lower Silurian.
Upper Silurian.
Tilestone.
V. Westmobeland and Hdndseuck.
Old Red Sandstone.
Carboniferous Limestone,

VI. Balloits. ....
Millstone Grit.

VII. Fobez.......

Coal Measures.
VIII. Forth of England.
Rothliegendes.
Magnesian Limestone.
IX. Netherlands and South Wales. .
Gres de Vosges,

Magnesian Conglomerate of Bristol,

X. Rhine.......

m ( Gres Bizarre.
< Muschelkalk.
( Marnes Irrisees.

La Vendee, Brittany.

Brittany, Normandy, Sweden, (1) Finland. C?)
Longmynd,Brittany, Normandy, Saxony, Sweden,

Finland.
Brittany, &c.

Wales and adjoining English Co^inties, West-
moreland, the Grampians, Ireland, the Eifel,
Nassau, the Vosges, France, Bohemia, Scandi-
navia, &c.

Many places in Great Britain and France. Ex-
tends to the Old Red Sandstone of Norway,
and the Devonian and Carboniferous Rocks
of Russia.

Several parts of France, Dudley, (?) Crossfell, (?)
Derbyshire. (?)

Central ridge from Derbyshire northwards, Mal-
vern, &o. ; Department of Loire, &c. ; Island
of Gothland; north of Russia.

Discontinuously from the Elbe to St Bride's Bay,
and southward into Brittany ; south of Ire-
land, Derbyshire, Netherlands, Thuriugia,
south of Russia, &c,

Vosges Mountains ; centre of France ; Dudley and
Coalbrook Dale ; Ireland; Scotland; Scandi-
navia.

XT. Thuringeewald.....

Lias.

Jurassic Formations.

XII. Mont Pilas and Cote d'Oe.

Lower Cretaceous Group.
(Lower Greensand, Gault and Upper
Greensand).

XIII. Veecoes......

XIV. Mont Viso and Pindtjs.

White Chalk (Upper and Lower).
Nummulitic Formation.

XV. Pteenbes......

Eocene of the Paris Basin beneath the
Gres de Fontainebleau.

XVI. Corsica and Saedinia.

(GrSs de Fontainebleau.)

XVII. Isle of Wight and Tatea.

Calcaire d'eau donee superieur (Paris

XVIII. Eetmanthus and Sanceerois.
Fahms de la Touraine.
Molasse (containing shells).
XIX. Western Alps. . . .
Terrain de Transport Ancien.

XX. Principal Chain op the Alps (from
' Le Vallais to Austria.)
Diluvium.
XXL Tbnare, Etna, and Vesuvius.

Thiiringerwald ; France.

Eastern and northern parts of France, Saxony,
Vosges, England (Oolitio escarpment).

Age not determined.

Mont Viso (French Alps); centre of France ;
Greece.

Pyrenees, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Carpathians,
south-east of England (Weald, &c.)

Corsica, Sardinia, upper parts of Loire and Allier,
Rhone, Hungary, Syria, Red Sea.

Isle of Wight, Tatra (a mountain south of the
Carpathians), Greece, Eastern Alps, Jura.

Greece, Prance.

Italy, Sicily, Northern Africa, Hungary, Poland,
Crimea, Asia Minor, the Hartz, Cantal, and
Mont D'or, Norway, Sweden.

South-east of England, north of France, south-
west of France, Spain, shores of the Medi-
terranean, north of Africa, Atlas, Caucasus.

Greece, Italy, Sicily.

seem possessed of remarkable interest.

1. On the west coast of Europe, the direction of these curves is chiefly from south-west to
north-east, which has long been remarked as the prevailing direction of stratification in these
regions. In Scotland especially, the curve almost coincides with the Grampian chain ; and, as it
becomes less northerly before reaching Portugal and Spain, we find it here also in singular accord-
ance with the Sierras, which crown the elevated plateaus of that peninsula. Before entering
Sweden, the line of intensity 1-4 tends to recurve in order to sweep down the plain of Russia in a
direction towards the south-east; but as the line 1'6 passes northward parallelly to the Norwegian
coast previous to recurving in the Arctic Ocean, there is little doubt that an intermediate line pur-
suing a course through the Scandinavian Alps will be found isodynarnic. The path of these curves
through European Russia does not diverge greatly from the direction of the stratifications of its
immense plains ; but on reaching the Oural the concordance is complete ; the magnetic line of 1-55
passing there from north to south.

2. In the south-west of Europe, the elevated zone of Spain lies in the direction of isodynarnic
curves; but its fracture by the Pyrenees—also a geological anomaly—indicates an exception to
the law, or at all events, an irregularity in the curve in that locality, which is not yet detected.
Farther east we reach the Alps; and notwithstanding the broken and complex nature of these
territories, we are struck by a surprising coincidence—the magnetic line following, with much
precision, the break in the great Alpine chains. As explained above, the interference or intersec-
tion of two upheavals causes this important range of mountains to seem to alter its direction, from
south-west and north-east to another almost easterly; and in the intermediate neighbourhood of
this break, the magnetic curve bends similarly, sweeping through Asia, along the peaks of the

Caucasus, Taurus, the Paropamisus, the Himalaya, and the Chinese ranges, when it again points
northerly, following the Yblanoi chain towards Behring Strait.

3. In the interior of Africa, of course, no curves have been traced ; but on connecting observa-
tions obtained near the coasts, the isodynamic curves appear to coincide with the direction of the
still hypothetical chain on the south of Sahara ; and with the lofty sea-coast ridge, which unites
the towering peaks of Abyssinia with the Table Mountain. It is likely, also, that there is a node,
or rebending of these lines, within that vast sinuosity of which the Gulf of Guinea is a part.

4. After Europe, North America is best known to geologists ; and throughout its wide extent,
the direction of the stratified masses corresponds with the isodynamic curves. Over the eastern
surface of the United States, we recognise the direction of south-west to north-east, as characteristic
of both phenomena; and in the regions near the Pacific, the magnetic curve lies along the line
north-north-west to south-south-east, which is the course of the Rocky Mountains. In Mexico,
Humboldt found the stratified beds lying parallel to the Cordillera of Anahuac, or from north-west
to south-east—also the direction of the magnetic curve passing through them; and a similar accord-
ance is discernible near the littoral chain of Venezuela, in the countries between the flats of the
Orinoco, and the basin of the Rio Negro, and the Amazon. So far as is yet known, the Andes of
South America are flagrant exceptions to the rule, for they are crossed by curves of values from 1-0
to 1-5; but to counterbalance this, lines appear to stretch downwards from the southernmost
promontories of America and Asia, straight towards those massive headlands within the Antarctic
regions, which our adventurous countryman has discerned as our first intimation of a continent
hidden, until now, within the barriers of Polar ice.

1 It is unfortunate for our elucidation of the subject, that the space to which we are limited will admit of only a general
reference to the theory of veins &nd. faults, so fully developed in Mr Hopkins' memoir in the Cambridge Philosophical Trans-
actions; nor can we do more than mention his interesting demonstration in the Transactions of the Royal Society for 1842,
of the law first recognised through observation by Mr Phillips, that in the case of a fault, the displaced beds are lowest on
that side of the fault, towards which the plane of the fault inclines from the vertical, in descending. The power of any theory
to exhibit such minor laws as unexpected deductions from its general principle, constituting the strongest presumption of
its truth, we shall hope that Mr Hopkins will apply the one now engaging his attention, to those more important and charac-
teristic features of our mountain-chains, which do not flow from their directions. One of these is especially noticeable, viz.,
the fact, observable also in the case of the Lunar Apennines, Alps, Caucasus, &c.—that our great ranges are abrupt on one
side—almost precipitous even, in their descent to the plains or the level of the sea; while on the other side they slope away
through a long highland. There can be httle doubt that this remarkable feature arises out of the manner in which the chains
were upraised, and is no consequence, as has often been supposed, of subsequent modifications of then-forms; and it appeared
BO important to Sir John Herschel and Mr Babbage, that they employed it as a fundamental characteristic in an ingenious
speculation concerning the Theory of Elevation. It seemed to these eminent philosophers, that as the ocean either now
washes one foot of every great mountain-range, or did so in former times (a fact necessarily resulting from the abriipt-
ness of one face of the chain), we must recognise an agent of elevation in the presence and operation of the sea; and
they conceived they had discerned the mode of the requisite action, in the fact, that as the waves, by wearing down
the coast and depositing its detritus at their bottom, must alter the vertical contour of the land in these localities,
they wUl, as a natural consequence, disturb the previous position of the isothermal surfaces within the earth's crust,
and produce disturbance and probably dislocations. The proposed explanation, however, is incapable of comprehending
the phenomena of the problem. 1. It assumes the existence of inequalities of vertical contour, inasmuch as it "assumes
a line of coast; and the existence of such inequalities is precisely the feature of all our planetary bodies, which this
portion of geological theory is required to explain. 2. It is not true that elevation takes place only along coast lines.
The vast zone in Scandinavia that is now rising, has no relation to the sea; nor have those phenomena which Darwin
recognised in the Pacific. 8. The elevating force is evidently a planetary one; and no ultimate explanation can be
accepted which will not apply to other worlds than the earth. But in the Moon, though chai-acterised by every con-
ceivable form and mode of fracture, no ocean exists, and, in all probability, matter in the liquid state has not yet been
developed on its surface.

The Himalaya Mountains extend over twenty-two degrees of longitude,—from 73° 23' to 95° 23'
east, or from the great bend of the Indus to that of the Brahmaputra : their mean breadth is
computed at 150 miles. The Himalaya is not, as has been represented, an individual mountain-chain,
but a group of snowy peaks, widely separated from each other, the spurs of a much higher snowless
region behind. Their mean elevation is probably 18,000 to 20,000 feet. The range from west to
east comprises the following mountain peaks, passes, and river-basins :—1. The Peak of Jamnoutri,
25,669 feet; 2. The Peak of Nanda-Devi, 25,749 feet j 3. Dhawalagiri, 27,600 feet; 4. The Peak
of Gossain-than, 24,700 feet j 5. The Peak of Kinchinjunga, 28,178 feet, east of which is the Lacheh
Pass into Tibet; 6. Donkia Mountain, 23,176 feet; 7. Chumulari, 23,929 feet; and 8. Zwillinge,
or the Twins, 21,600 feet. These mountain-knots enclose the upper or Alpine basins of the rivers
Ganges ; the Karnali, which forms the Takla-Khar Pass ; the Gandak, at the head of one of the
sources of which is the Mustung Pass, and of another the Kerung Pass ; the Cosi, on the head
streams of which are the Kuti Pass, the Hatia Pass, and the Wullung Pass; the Tishta, which has
its source in Lake Cholamu, in the table-land of Tibet; the Monas, which joins the Brahmaputra
N. of the Garrow hills ; and part of the basin of the Subhansri, another tributary of the Brahma-
putra. These river-basins are separated by meridional chains, extending in a southerly direction
from each of the mountain-knots above described.

The range of the snowy Himalaya is marked on the map by the darkest line of parallel ridges,
forming the watershed between Tibet and India. On the south this mountain region terminates by a
low ridge of land sloping southwards to the plain of India. The entire surface of the Himalaya is divided
into three distinct regions : 1. The lower region, from the level of the plain to 4000 feet above the
sea ; 2. The middle region, 4000 to 10,000 feet above the sea; and, 3. The upper region, from 10,000
to 16,000 feet above the sea.^ The geological formation of the upper region is granite and gneiss ;
of the middle region, gneiss and slate; and of the lower region, sandstone and diluvial detritus.
These three regions present the most marked peculiarities of structure. In crossing from the plains
of India to Tibet there is, first, the green " Tarai," so unlike the arid plains of Upper India ; next
the great belt of Saulwood ; and then the Dhuns or Marais, in the sandstone region, separated from
the region of wood by a low mountain-range. From the small section (A) it will be seen that the
Tarai sinks below the level of the plain, that the wooded region rises gradually above it, and that the
region of the Dhuns extends upwards to the foot of the true mountains.

The Tarai is an open plain, covered with grass, and noted for its insalubrity, which arises from
its extraordinary dampness and its numerous marshes. The " Bhever," or wooded, region is equally
unhealthy, but it is as peculiar for its aridity as the other is for its moisture, owing to the porous nature
of its soil. The sandstone belt, 300 to 400 feet in elevation, is rich in fossils ; it is 3000 feet above
the sea, or 2000 feet above the plain. The " Dhuns " have a climate as dry and unhealthy as the for-
mer ; they are from 5 to 10 miles broad, 2500 feet above the sea, and 1500 feet above the plain.
On the north this immense mountain mass is immediately connected with the elevated table-land of
Tibet, the whole surface of which, in as far as yet ascertained, is traversed in every direction by mountain
ranges in all respects similar to those which constitute the Himalaya. The northern boundary of Tibet
is formed by the snowy chain of the Kuen-lun mountains, of which very little is known. The table-
land of Tibet appears to be characterised by a striking uniformity of climate and natural productions.
It is separated naturally into two great divisions, about the region occupied by the lakes of
Manasarowar and Rawan Ehad, in the eastmost of which the drainage flows towards the Sanpu or
Brahmaputra. Of this portion very little is known. The other, or western division, is drained chiefly
by the Indus and its tributaries. This portion has been frequently visited by Europeans. The mean
height of the table-land is estimated at 16,000 feet; the minor mountain ranges being 17,000 to 18,000
feet; and the principal ranges, 19,000 feet above the level of the sea. Far from being a plain, as was
erroneously suppose^ it appears that the mountains on the southern border of Tibet, at least to the
west of the Sutlej, where alone they are well known, are, in many peaks of the interior, even more
lofty than any of those near the plains of India.® Glaciers are found in all the mountains of the
Himalaya and Western Tibet, wherever they attain an elevation above the snow line (see Geo-
graphical Distribution of Glaciers, p. 33). As there explained, the Himalaya rises 9000 feet above
this line on the southern side, and 12,000 feet on the northern or Tibetan side. Kinchinjunga^ is
the highest ascertained mountain-knot of the Himalaya, and is presumed to be the culminating point
of the globe. It rises in three heads of nearly equal height, forming a line running north-west.® It
exposes many white and grey rocks, bare of snow, and the round-knobbed form of its summit
suggests a granite formation.^ The passes of the Himalaya are from 16,000 to 19,000 feet above the
level of the sea.

In Eastern India, the Ramgurh hills in Bengal cover a considerable extent of surface, forming
groups or detached plateaus of moderate elevation, separated by gentle depressions. The most
extensive and elevated of these plateaus is that of Hazareebagh, about 1800 feet above the sea.
Many of the hills are of primitive formation, but others of a later date abound in coal and iron.

11. The Mountains of Assam constitute the borders of the country on the north, south, and east;
they are of great but unknown elevation. In the interior the province is described as comprising
an immense plain, covered with groups of hills rising abruptly from the general elevation. The valley
is traversed by the Brahmaputra, which, by its inundations, has raised a rich and widely extended
alluvial soil. Little is known of the geology of Assam ; the mountains on the north of the plain are
described as consisting of primitive limestone, granite, serpentine, and porphyry, and those on the
south are said to be mostly of gneiss and stratified granite. Coal has been discovered in many
places on the north of the Brahmaputra. Iron ore is found, and gold dust is washed down by the
rivers. Between the Assam mountains and Sylhet the Cossyah or Garrow Hills cover a large area,
but are of no great elevation. They were supposed to be rich in minerals, but from a recent geolo-
gical survey it appears that neither iron nor coal are abundant.

12. The Mountains of Ceylon.—The central and southern parts of the island are elevated and
mountainous, Adam's Peak being 7420 feet, and Pendrotallagalla Mountain 8280 feet above the sea.
The eastern shores are in many places bold and rocky, while the western shores are uniformly low,
and indented with bays and inlets. The chief geological features are gneiss in the south, lime and
sandstone in the level parts of the north, and dolomite in the interior. The summit of Adam's Peak
is of hornblende. The principal minerals are iron, manganese, plumbago, nitre in caves, and salt.

II. The Plains and Depressions op Asia comprise a lar^-e portion of true steppes and deserts,
interspersed with the richest and most fertile valleys. The most important are—

1. The Chinese Lowland, which consists of a district of pure alluvium. It is situated between lati-
tude 30° 15' and 35° north, and extends from the shores of the Yellow Sea to a great distance inland,
covering an area of about 80,000 square miles, the greater part of which is destitute even of a pebble
or a grain of sand. This extremely fertile tract comprises the deltas of the Yang-tse-Kiang, the
Hoang-Ho, and other rivers north and south of Pekin.

2. The Plains of Further India, in Cambodia and Siam, comprise the rich valleys on the west
of the Gulf of Tonquin and those of the rivers Mekong, Menam, Saluen, and Irrawady. Of these
regions very little is known.

3. The Plains of Hindostan.—The Ganges, which is not separated by any prominent watershed
from the Indus, is, at Benares, only 270 feet above the sea. Its valley forms a wide hilly alluvial
plain, which, in Bengal, opens out, and is traversed by numerous smaller streams. Where it enters the
Bay of Bengal the Ganges forms a cluster of small marshy islands, the result of the deposition of soil
washed down by the river during its periodical inundations. This district is called the Sunderhunds.

4. The Valley of the Indus, in the Punjab, is an alluvial plain, extending for several hundred
miles without any eminence except the salt hills near the base of the Himalaya. The soil of this
plain is generally sandy and barren, but it is interspersed with fertile spots, and is abundantly
supplied with the means of irrigation. In the north of Scinde the valley is remarkably fertile in the
alluvial district extending on both sides of the Indus; but in the lower part, an extensive alluvial tract,
being deserted by the river, is now a desert, and the country of the delta, overflowed by the tide, is a
barren, unprofitable waste of sand called the Thur. On the east of this is the remarkable depression
termed the Eunn of Cutch, which, within a comparatively recent period, has evidently been subjected
to a succession of upheavals and descents. The sea at one time, probably, swept over the present
Hunn, and extended far beyond its boundaries; and a series of positions along the old sea margin
indicate by their names, the ports, custom-houses, and other places along the shore. Euins are now
found 15 feet below the surface of the soil, which must have been sunk beneath the waves to this
depth, and brought to their present position by a fresh upheaval. The Runn was to a great extent
submerged by an earthquake on the 16th June 1819, and it is now divided into two portions, one of
which is a salt lake and the other a salt-water marsh. To the north of the Eunn are two remarkable
hollows at some distance from each other, termed the Null and the Bohe. These appear to be the
result of volcanic agency^ They contain salt-water, receiving supplies of fresh watei from rivulets,
but discharging none Near the centre of the Deccan the basin of Lake Loonar forms a depression
about 500 feet below the adjoining country. It appears to be the crater of an extinct volcano, as lava
is found near it in great abundance. It contains water nearly saturated with subcarbonate of soda.

5. ^Ae 0/ Za.Am.V consists of an alluvial plain, about 50 miles long, 10 or 12 miles
wide, and 5300 feet above the sea It is the valley of the river Behat, and the bed of a former lake.
The valley is completely surrounded by a gird e of snowy mountains, and is separated by snowy
ranges from the valley of the Chenab on the south and by the main axis of the flLalaya, lorn the
basin of the Indus, on the north. On the south side of the valley several passes, 10,000 o 14,000
feet above the sea, lead to the plains of India. ^ , , w lu

6. The Low-land of Turan and Bucharia extends from the table linrl nf t,. x-u x
the Ural Mountains, and a western branch of the Altai on the north It, w

great depression of the Caspian and Aral Seas, forming the basin of the conSentTsSSrs'rsee
Plate 16, page 55). This immense area, the greatest horizontal hollow on the surface of the o-lobe is
apparently the basin of a former inland sea,—the present level of the Caspian beino- 83 feet below
that of tlie Black Sea.. °

7. The Low-lands of Syria and Arabia are, in the southern part, dry and stony deserts almost
destitute of water; but in the north, near the lower courses of the Euphrates and Tie-ris thev arp
rich and fertile. In the north of Palestine the Valley of Bekka is a fertile and well-watered tract,

I S®® ''y Hodgson, Esq. Journal Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, 1849. Berghaus Geog. Jalirbuch 1851

^ Dr Ihomson's Western Himalaya.

if m?™® celebrated mountain is spelled Kanchainjunga, Kinchinjunga, KincMngunga, or Kuncliiniunffa. bv difPprPTii-

To ?on "lei'S'irements, ascertained from three different trigonometrical stations on the plain, are respectively 28 12^7
28,182.6, and 28,192.5 feet ; and from four stations in the Sub-Himalaya, 28,177.4, 28,183.0, 28,162.5, and 28,21^8 feet. The mean
result, as stated above, is 28,178 feet. 4 Hooker's Himalayan .Journal.

extending between the ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon; and in the south the Dead Sea presents
the deepest and most remarkable depression on the globe, the surface of its waters being 1312 feet
below those of the Mediterranean. The Dead Sea is supposed to have been at one time connected
with the Gulf of Akaba, from which it is now separated by the Wady Araba, a sloping valley, the
highest part of which, of unascertained elevation, forms the barrier between them. The bottom of the
Dead Sea consists of two submerged plains, the lowest of which is about 1300 feet below the surface.

8. The Plains and Steppes of Siheria.—This region, extending from the Ural Mountains on the
west, to the Pacific Ocean and Behring Strait on the east, slopes northwards from the base of the
Altai Mountains on the south, to the Frozen Ocean on the north. In the southern regions the
surface is covered with forests, interspersed with many fertile valleys. In the west the steppes are
flat or undulating, without any prominent eminence, while all the northern portion is a trackless
wilderness, with numerous small salt lakes and marshy flats, called Tundras the soil of which is
frozen to a depth of several hundred feet during a great part of the year. '

III. ON THE MEAN HEIGHT OF THE CONTINENTS.

This subject was first examined philosophically by Humboldt. He was led to the investigation
from a discovery of the evident errors of Laplace, who, from theoretical considerations regarding the
form of the globe, concluded that the mean depth of the sea must be a measure corresponding to that
of the mean elevation of the continents, which he estimated at 1000 metres, or 3280 feet. Humboldt
considered this inquiry all the more necessary, since, from the imposing elevation of mountain chains
they exercise a far more striking effect on the imagination and the senses than the masses of the
continents and table-lands, although their effect in elevating the superfices is comparatively insig-
nificant. This is evident from the fact that the elevation of the highest summits yet known, above
the level of the sea, amounts in measurement to only about the five thousandth part of the circum-
ference of the globe, or the sixteen hundredth part of its diameter. Taking, for example, the chain
of the Pyrenees, the mean height and horizontal area of which have been accurately measured,
it is found by calculation that, if the entire mass of these mountains were pulverised and spread
equally over France, the surface of that country would by that means be raised only to the extent of
115 feet; or if the mountain mass of which the chain of the Alps is composed—the base of which is
nearly four times greater than that of the Pyrenees—were similarly abraded and distributed over
the whole extent of Europe, its present surface would not thereby be raised more than 22 feet; while,
on the contrary, the Iberian peninsula—Spain and Portugal—with its compact plateau mass of
nearly 2000 feet of elevation, would, if so levelled, produce an effect equivalent to 76 feet, or four
times more in proportion than the system of the Alps. It thus appears that the mean height of
continents depends far less on the culminating points or domes of the great mountain-chains than on
the general configuration of the table-lands and elevated plains. The effect of the Alps in elevating
the surface of Europe is compensated by the great plain in the north, and that of the colossal masses
of Asia is diminished by the low elevation of a large portion of the continent, the steppes or
plains of Siberia, which, with an area greater by one-third than the whole of Europe, has a
normal height of not more than 225 feet above the level of the sea. The steppes of the Gobi cover
a region twice as large as the whole surface of Germany, and would raise the centre of gravity of
Asia to the extent of 128 feet; while the Himalaya Mountains and the Kuen-lun, with the table-land
of Tibet, by which they are connected, would produce an elevating effect on the whole of Asia
amounting to 358 feet. The result of a laborious course of investigation leads to the assumption,
that the centre of gravity of the land, or the mean height of the continents (Africa being excepted)
above the present level of the sea, is in—

Feet above the sea.
748
671

(See the comparison represented graphically in the diagram at foot of the Plate.)

IV. UPHEAVAL OF THE ISLAND OF EEGUAIN.

In the Old World three localities have long been known on which the phenomena of upheaving,
by subterranean force, was visible. 1. Scandinavia, and other countries of the Baltic generally;
2. The west coast of Italy; and, 3. The shores of the Gulf of Cutch, in the west of India. A fourth
territory of upheaving became known in 1840, by means of the nautical surveys of the brig Childers,
on the west coast of Aracan. From these it appears that the Island of Reguain, or Flat Island, as well
as all the other islets and rocks on that part of the coast of Aracan, is undergoing a process of upheaval.
The whole coast, from Akyab to Cape JSTegrais, is indented by deep and narrow gulfs, similar to the
fiords of Scandinavia. This district lies within the prolongation of the great volcanic band of the Sunda
Islands, which extends from Java to Sumatra, Barren Island, and Narcondam; and indeed all the islands
on the coast of Aracan bear evident marks of subterranean fire. In the Island of Cheduba alone
(lat. 18° 51' N., long. 93° 28' E.), there are two mud volcanoes, which rise to a height of from 100
to 200 feet. This line of upheaval is in the direction of N.W. by N. to S.E. by S. It is about 100
geographical miles in length, and varies in breadth from 20 miles to a very narrow stripe of islets
and rocks. The upheaval has been greatest in the middle of the line. At the Terribles it was 13
feet; at different parts of the north-west reefs of Cheduba, 22 feet; at the north point of the island,
16 feet; at the middle, on the west coast, 13 feet; at the south end, 12 feet; and in the
islands south of Cheduba to Foul Island, from 9 to 12 feet. The first symptoms of upheaval
appeared about the year 1750 or 1760, on the occurrence of a great earthquake, by which the
sea was driven over the land, and the effects of which were felt as far as the city of Ava. An
earthquake is said to have occurred 100 years earlier, and the inhabitants believe that a similar
phenomenon occurs every century. The different portions of upheaval in the Island of Eeguain are
indicated by colours on the plan on left margin of the map. On this islet three periods of upheaval
are distinguished. The line coloured green shows the beach of the original island ; F, a volcano
near its centre, about 90 feet above the sea. The yellow line represents the beach of the land subse-
quently raised. This eruption commenced northward, at the points a h, and southward of the
point v.p. of the first beach, v.p. is a very small volcanic mount, from which issues a quantity of petro-
leum. The outer portion of the island was raised about the year 1760. c was a small islet before
the last eruption. The dotted line which surrounds it, and the one farther southward, were apparently
sand-banks, w denotes a well; d, salt marshes; e, former streamlets. The numerous marks + +
denote masses of coral and of other rock, which completely cover the outer formation. The second
formation has but a few here and there, and the original island is perfectly clear of them, with the
exception of a slight sprinkling near the streamlet at its northern point. The land last raised is
quite uncultivated; the remainder of the island is one large paddy field: and / is one of several
rocks on the last-raised land, which exhibits a water-line of the same height as that of the second
formation. The whole island consists of three nearly perfect levels, differing only by 6 or 8 feet in
height, the inner on& having at its centre a volcano about 90 feet above the sea. The water is very
shoal to the northward, and also on the eastern side of Reguain. L, landing-place.

V. EXPLANATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL MAP OF JAVA. BY DE THOMAS HOESFIELD.

(a) Volcanic Eegion.—The volcanoes, whether in a state of activity or extinct, are marked thus o. Dr Horsfield gives

the following information Gagak and Paduha; crater in a state of partial activity. Salak ; crater, last erup-
tion 1761. Tankuban Prahu; crater discharging sulphureous vapours from various a-pertures. i^rom Tilo to
Chirukai, extinct volcanoes. Papandayung ; the crater fell in in 1772. Guntur ; crater, last eraption about 1807.
Manglayang and Maruyung, extinct volcanoes. Chermai; crater, last eruption in 1805. ialaga liodas; crater,
with a lake with water. Ungarang; crater extinct. Lawu; crater discharging sulphureous vapours. Klut;
crater exploded in 1785. Arjuna ; crater discharging smoke. Dasar; ^^^ Lamongan;

crater exploded in 1806. Einggit; remains of the crater, which fell m in 1586, according to Valentyn. Tashem ;

(b) SrcfndarJ vXame^-L^Extensive district of secondary

near the sea, where the limestone rocks are piled up to great heights; basis basalt with breccia in the beds of
rivers; also porphyry, jasper, cornelian, agate, obsidian. In some places quartz appearing in rock-crystals,
prlfer^ or an^ethyst, Varely siliceous petrifaction. 2. Mixed calcareous rock-sand ridges imposed upon or alter-

(c) In is coloured light green, the District of Surabaya (3) consists of alluvium resting
Cd^ YSlev^^thrbaSso^ which is gravel in irregular concretions, or in immense strata, frequently caked together as

sandstone in a flat or cubical form, called Padas by the Javans.

(e) Alluvium._4. Near the sea immense piles of calcareous rocks with large excavations. 5. Low sandy district.

. H. Hot well. • Wells of water impregnated with fixed air. 9. Abrupt piles of brsccia basalt.

• M. Mineral well. 6. Secondary volcanic ridge. 'lO. Calcareous well.

• n'. Well of naphtha. 7. Extremity of a stratified volcanic ridge. All. Volcanic ebullition.

• S. Salt well. 8. Wells of fresh water in the sea. The trees show the line of the teak forests.

VI. Volcanic Kingdom of Luzon.—This, the most northern and the largest of the Philippine
Islands, is situated between latitude 12° 30' and 18° 45' north, and longitude 119° 45' and 124°
15' east. Its surface is mostly mountainous, the northern part being composed of granite and
recent volcanic rocks, with secondary and tertiary deposits and coal. The southern part, in the dis-
trict called the Camarines, is almost entirely volcanic. On this Map the volcanoes are represented
on a larger scale than was possible on the Map of Volcanic Phenomena. (See Plate 10.)

VII. SECTIONS.

The lines of the sections at the foot of the Plate have been chosen with a view to the represen-
tation of some of the more striking features in the physical relief of the Old World, lhat on the
line A.B., from west to east, between the parallels of 40° and 50°, shows the gradual rise ot the plain
of France and the mountains on its eastern border, terminating in the Jura range ; the table-land
of the Jura, and the sudden rise of the masses comprising the Swiss Alps, their declension tlience to
the plains of Hungary, the rise of the surface again to the Carpathians on the east; ana tne depres-
sion of the Caspian below the level of the Black Sea. Section C.D., about the meridian ot 13 east,
starting from the Arctic Ocean in the north, cuts the great plateau of Scandmavi^slopes gently by
the table-land of Gothia to the Baltic Sea ; thence it crosses the great plam ^^ ^ ortnem ^^^.^ope,
and rises from Dessau to the Erz-Gebirge ; rising to its highest POi^^ m ^he

abruptly to the Adriatic, whence it again rises in the Apennines, aud declines gently to the Medi-

teriian. This section shows the snow-line ascending above the surface p^estinrlri.
to south. The next section shows, on a large scale, the l^^^ed portion of ralestme which comprises

the hollow formed by the Jordan, and the remarkable depression of the^^^^

terranean. The section across the Himalaya shows the rise of the surface from Cape Comorin, at
the southern extremity of the peninsula of Hindostan, the hollow of tne Palghat valley the table-
land of the Deccan, supported by the Neilgherries on the south, "fountains on the
north, and the depression of the plain of India succeeded by the

laya mountains. Between the Himalayas and the Kuen-Lun mountains is the high table-land of
Tibet; beyond the Kuen-Lun the surface falls to the plams of Upper lartary, and thence the ground
slopes northwards to the steppes of Siber ia.

Annery (West Alps").
Asiago (South Alps).
Aalen (Swabian Jura).
Albano (near Eome).
Alessandria.
Alpines (South France).
Appenzell.
Aquila (Abruzzo).
Arezzo (Tuscany).
Argenik (Albania).
Arnsberg.
AschafFenburg.

B

C

, Cascia, Civita di (Abruzzo).
. Cassel (Hessen).
, Castonia (Macedonia).
, Corno di Canzo (South Alps).
. Croja (Albania).
. Castellvecio ' (Abruzzo),

Cabeza de Maria.
, Cahirconree, or Cahirconrigh.
, Calmuck.
, Canigou (Pyrenees).
, Plomb du Cantal.

Cares.
, Carcasonne.
. Carlsruhe.
. Carterfell.
. Casale.
, Castelnaudary.
, Civita Ducale (Abruzzo).
. Cima d'Asla (South Alps).
, Col de Fen^tres.
, Canal de Laneruedoc.
Cima di Portola.
Cerdon.
Cairngorm.

Chasseron (Helvetian Jura).
Choczer Peak (Carpathians).
Chur (Grisons).
Chartreuse, Great.
Montagnes du Cheval Blanc.
Chiavenna (South Alps).
Cisterna.
Clermont.
Cerro Mulha9en.
, Cape Matapan.
, Coburg.
. Coblenz.
, Colmar.
, Col-Berg.
Constantinople.
Col. Eoburent.
Oiffel.
. Cucnzzo, Monte.

D

, Diumbier (Carpathians).
. Dolmar (Tlmringer Walcl).
, Darmstadt.
Dentsch Brod (Bohemia).
Dent du Midi.
, Diablerets (Central Alps).
Dijon (France).
Djumerka (Albania).
, Domodossola.
. Dodi.
. Dornberg.
, Dovrefield.
. Dresden.
. Dreysessclberg.
, Dusseldorf.

E

. Etropol.
. Eggenbnrg.
. Egri Palanka.
. Eichsfeld.
. Eisenhut.

. Elatea Mountain (Greece).
. Epinal.

. Erbsenkopf "Wald.
. Escudo, Alta del (Cantabr. Mountains).
. Eski Sagra.
. Cerro de Espadan.
. Grande Etoile.
. Ettersberg (near Weimar).

Feltre (Venice).
Fiorina (Macedonia).
Frankenheim (on the Khone).
Friedberg (Bohemia).
Finster-Aarhorn.

Fatra.

Fatra (Hnngary).
, Les Fagnes.
, Falknis-Berg.
, Foret d'Othe.
Felizzano (Piedmont).
Feldberg (SchwarzwaUl).
Feldberg (Taunus).
Fichtelberg (Erzgeb).
Finstermiinz.
Fioncho, Monte.
Foligno.
Folgefond.
Formentera.
Freiburg.
Freyberg.
I Freiwalde.
. Freystadt.
. Fulda.
Fussen.

Marseilles.

Mareskalsfjeld.

Margaride.

Marienburg.

Mont Bousser (South Alps).

Monte Brunone (South Alps).

Marienberg (Saxony).

Miiggelsberg (near Berlin).

Insel Monte Christo (near Corsica).

Mont Camera (Central Alps).

Monte Cave (near Rome).

Mont Cenis (West Alps).

Mont Colombier (Helvetian Jura).

Mont Capanne.

Monte Cimone.

Mont Dauphin.

Muela de Ares.

Montagnes du Charolais.

Montagnes d'Estrella.

Montagnes de Lure (South Alps),

Montagnes de la Caune,

Montagnes des Maures,

Montagnes de Marghine,

Montagnes de Morvan,

Mola di Taormina,

Mediasch,

Medvenik.

Meissner.

Memmingen,

Mendip Hills,

Mont Ficherino.

Mealfourvouny.

Monte Ganio, or Gavio (near the Ortler).

Monte Geneoso (on Lago-di Garda).

Mont St Gothard.

Mont Grenier.

Minden.

Miosen Lake.

Miltenberg,

Mitrowitza.

Mittelgebirge.

Mont Javoult.

Mont Jargean.

Meleda Island.

Monte Legnone (South Alps).

Mont Louis (Pyrenees).

Melibokus.

Mount Malevo.

Munna Magi,

Monte Maggiore.

Mauro, Monte St.

Molesson.

Montabaner.

Montpellier.

Montagnes de Mosset, or Mousset.

Mostar (Herzegowina).

Mouch^rol.

Mouthe.

Meppen.

Monte Pistoia.

Monte Scopo.

Monte Soriano,

Monte San Angelo.

Monte Terrible.

Mont Toro (Minorca).

Munchen.

Mugnarfield.

Monte Venda.

Monte Ventoux.

N

Nevesign (Herzegowina).
Narcia (Abruzzo).
Neidenburg.

Neretzka Planina Mountain.

Neuenhaus.

Nordhausen.

Nordlingen.

Novibazar.

Niirnberg.

O

Oro, Monte dell'.

Oberndorff (Schwarzwald).

Obion, or Obioux (South Alps).

Ochsenkopf.

Odenwald.

Ozthaler (Farther).

Olberg.

Om Planina.

Oranienburg.

Ossero, Monte.

Osman Bazar.

Osnabruck.

Oszmiana, Heights of.

P

Padua.

Petersberg (near Ilalle).

Prespa (Maced., East of Lake Ochri).

Prilip (Macedonia).

Prisvan (Albania).

Paderborn ( Westphalia).

Padolia.

Paproder Berg.

Peissenberg.

Pentland Hills.

Potsdam.

Piana di Catania.

Perron des Encombres.

Pic de Fortangent.

Puerto de Guadarama.

Puerto de Monasterio.

Puy de Montocelle.

Puerto de la Plata.

Puerto del Eey.

M. Pellegrino (Sicily).

Penmaen Mawr.

Pennagolosa.

Perindagh.

Peterwardein.

Philippopel.

Piano di Cinque Miglia.
Pirmasenz.

Plaschkavitza Mountain.
Plochingen.
Plockenstein.
Pic du Midi de Bigorre.
Pic du Midi de Pan.
Podgoritza.
Pojani.
Pokroi.
Polingny.
Porim.
Potzberg.
, Pic Posets.
Puy se Calm.
Pierre sur Haute.
, Pic Vieil.
Porta Westphalica.

Q

Quedlinbura:.
Quantock Hills.

R

Ronces Valles, or Ronceveaux.
Riickenberg.

Rundene (Rundafjeld Pickhatten).
Bnte:Qeld.

S

Saaz (Bohemia),
Seres (Macedonia),
Spliigen (Central Alps).
Saarburg.
Sierra de Alhama.

Sierra d'Arrabida (culminating point

of the Formosinho).
Salfjeld,
Salona.

Salinas (Sierra de).
Sallanche.
Sapada, or Sapeda.
Salzburg.
Schonningerberg,
Scutari.

Schalia (Albania).
Schemnitz Mountain,
Monte Schiena d'Asino (near Rome).
Schio, City (near Verona).
Schneekopf (Thiiringer Wald).
Schwerin (Meklenburg).
Schafhansen.
Schaumburg.
Schneeberg, Town.
Schlern, Berg.
Schneeberg (East Alps).
Schneeberg (Sudetic Mountains).
Schneekoppe.
St Di4 or St Diey.
Shehallion, or Shehallien.
Serre.
Seyssel.
Sezza.

Siebengebirge (seven Mountains).
Siegen.
Sigmaringen.
Simplon.
Skagastolstind.
Skarven.

Skurdalsporten (road near Lake Skru

dal).
Semmelberg.
St Marie aux Mines.
Schneeberg (near Triest).
Schneeberg (near Vienna).
Sollstein.
Sompuis.
Spoleto.

See Rikavetz (Lake Rikavitz).
Sierras Albas (Cantab, ilountains).
Sierra de Guara.
. San Salvador,
. Hohe Sentis.
. Sterzing (Tyrol).

. Strela, or Tiirkli Scheideck (Grisons).
. Stang-Alp.
. St Bernard (Little).
. St Benedik.
. Sternberg.
. St Genis, or St Genix.
. St Hyppolit.
. St Ildefonso.
. St Imier.
. St Jobann.
. Sierra Tejada.
.P. St Jean Pied de Port.
. St Marcello.
St Martin de Chautien.
St Maximin.
St M<<ndhould.
Storsiben.
Stralsund.
St Lovelin.
St Stefano.
St Stefano.
Stuttggard.
St Victoire Mountain.
Suchet Mountain.
Sulmona.
Sycharitza.
Syltfjeld, or Syltkop.
Szawl.

Tagliaferro (Central Alps).

Teschen (Bohemia).

Toussaines (Bretagne).

Tricala (Thessaly).

Trajak (Macedonia).

Tachau.

Tagliacosso.

Tamsweg.

Tarascon.

Telenka Draja,

Teinitz.

Templin.

Hohe Tennergebirge.
. Mont Tendre.

Terminillo, Grande and Picolo.
, Teiitoburger Wald.
, Thurndorf.
, Tivoli.
Toblach.
Tomoros.
, Torgau.

Sierra de Torinnona.
, Mont Trelot (West Alps).
, Trient.
, Trier.
, Tripolitza.
Tronfjeld.
Tshainitza.
. Traunstein.

U

, TJllensvang.
. Uskiub.

Veleta, Pic (Sierra Nevada)

Grand Ventron (Vosges).

Vicenza (Upper Italy).

Vigo (Tyrol).

Vogel (Source of Rhme).

Miosen wand (in the Vale of Valders)

Valplan.

Vattendalsfjeld, Pass of.

Val de Dieu.

Velutschi (Greece).

Venasque.

Verdun.

Villa-Franca.

Vignemale (Pyrenees).

Vigelnsfjeld (Vigelns Peas).

Villach (East Alps).

Villingen (Schwarzwald).

Voirans.

Vranatz.

AV

Wildberg.

Wazniaun.

Weimar.

Westerwald.

Wildenliof.

Wittenberg.

Wormser Ridge.

Wesel.

Wessely.

AViirzburg.

Y

Yverdon.
Z

Ziirich.

Zirknitzer See.
Zeda Monte.
Zwettel.

CRYSTALLINE SCHISTS.

The first group distinguished in our map consists of the crystalline strata or schists of all ages. In
this are included not only the normal varieties of gneiss, mica slate, talc slate, chlorite slate, clav slate
granular limestone or marble, but all the modifications of these strata, and also many other rarer crystal-
line compounds. On lookmg at the map, the chief development of these rocks is seen to be in the north
where, ranging from the west coast of the British Islands through Scandinavia, they form the high
mountain-land that borders the Atlantic Ocean. In all this range-in Scotland and Scandinavia-the
dominant mass is gneiss of normal constitution, and approximating in its deeper portions to granite, and
overlaid by mica slate quartz rock, and c ay slate. In Scandinavia these rocks are very rich in metallic
ores and other minerals, especially near the intrusive igneous masses-as silver at Kon^berg ; coTalt a?
Modmn ; copper at Fahlun, Tunaberg, Roraas and Alten; iron, chiefly the magnetite, at A^e^dal Utoe
Dannemora, and Sala-and m these mmes, and also in Finland, are contained very many rare 2d beau
tiful minerals.

These rocks are in great part—certainly those of Scandinavia-of anterior date to the most ancient
known fossiliferous deposits ; the Lower Silurian beds—the lowest in which traces of life are known in that
region, in Germany, and in Great Britain—resting unconformably upon them. We have, however coniec
tured that in part the Scottish crystalline slates may represent metamorphosed Silurian strata. We have
also assigned this origin to the narrow band of crystalline schists which, in the low ridges of the Oural
bound the great plain of Northern Europe on the east, and are everywhere broken through by igneous
rocks. The great masses of crystalline strata on the south border of this plain are also evidently of very
various age. In the Thuringerwald, they are greenish talcose, quartzose schists, which, in their exten-
sion to the northern part of the chain, have been converted into mica slate and gneiss. Near Freiberg,
even the latter, as we have elsewhere stated, is apparently very different in age from the same rock in
Scotland and Scandinavia.^ The Erzgehirge with its rich mineral veins, the Fichtelgebirge, the Bohmer-
wald, and other mountain groups, forming the basin in which the Silurian rocks of central Bohemia
were deposited, must evidently be of more ancient date. In these mountains the succession of rocks is
nearly the same as in Scotland and Scandinavia, gneiss sometimes, as in the Biihmerwald, containing

gra] - - - . - „,.

talcj

being broken through not only by granite ^---------r- 1. ..

and trachytes, as in the vicinity of Bilin and Teplitz, and also by numerous intersecting systems of
mineral veins—the tin veins, as at Ehrenfriedersdorf, Marienberg, Zinnwald, being here as in other places
probably tl'e older. The smaller portion of crystalline strata in the Carpathians and eastern Austria
may be regarded as the continuation of this range, and, from their connection with the older palEeozoic

strata in some parts, as of similar age.

The crystalline rocks of Brittany, central France, and the enormous chain of the Alps, form, as it
were, a backbone dividing Northern from Southern Europe. Though we have shown some portions of these
strata in central. France to be only altered carboniferous deposits,'' yet other portions have formed the
basins in which coal-beds were accumulated, and furnished the materials composing the coarse con-
glomerates on which they rest. In the Alps, this group embraces a far wider range of strata than per-
haps in any other part of Europe We comprise in it not only the great ellipsoidal masses, often with a fen-
shaped stratification, and of doubtful relation to the associated granites, which have thrown off the newer
formations around, but also the metamorphic or altered portions of these deposits, whatever may be their
age. Thus the gneiss and calcareous mica slates of St Gothard, full of beautiful minerals ; the slaty pro-
togines of Mont Blanc ; the talcose and chloritic slates in many parts of Switzerland and Savoy, even though
their passage into the mesozoic strata of jurassic or cretaceous age can be demonstrated, m4t be retained
in this group, not less than the older altered rocks which we have enumerated in other countries, and which
are probably more common m the eastern parts of the chain. This formation, therefore, includes the
greater part of the rocks described by Studer as the « palaeozoic formations of the inner Alps," and by
the authors of the Map of France as altered jurassic strata." In relation to these masses, the age of the
original deposits seems of less importance than the fact that they have all undergone a powerful modifyinc.
action, sufficient to obliterate most traces of their former condition. ''

The crystalline strata in Southern Europe have not been well distinguished from the older igneous
rocks and granite. In Spain this has been only partially done in Galicia by Schultz, in Portu..al
by D. Sharpe, and in a few other localities by different observers; but in general the boundary liSes
are far from being accurately defined. In Italy, through the labours of La Marmora, Meneghini and
Savi, we have also only been able partially to separate these rocks; and in Greece and Turkey the
difficulty of effecting a division is still greater, many parts of these countries being still wholly unexolored
In Asia Minor, for the same reason, the boundaries of this, as of the other formations, are even more
hypothetical in many places, M. P. Tchihatcheff conjoining many of the mica slates of that region with
the fossiliferous Devonian rocks.

2 Near Vichy—Quarterly Geological Journal, vol. vii. p. 13.

OLDER PALEOZOIC GROUP, OR SILURIAN SYSTEM.

First fully described and characterised by its peculiar fossils in the western parts of our own country,
and then traced into Russia and Scandinavia,® this vast system of formations is now ascertained to occupy
wide tracts, not only in Europe hut in the other continents, and notably in America. Our map shows that
in Europe it is chiefly exposed in the north and west, though the small portions rising to the surface in other
places, through the newer strata, prove that it probably forms the foundation on which tliese beds have been
deposited—the first stage in the long series of organic creations made known to us by geological research.
In the typical regions of Wales and the adjoining counties of England, the following divisions and sub-
divisions have been distinguished by their peculiar organic remains, though the whole group is still inti-
mately linked together, not only by the general character, hut by many common species of fossils.

The lower Silurian consists of—1st, The Longmynd or bottom rocks, composed of slates, greywackes,
or coarse conglomerates, in which, in England, no traces of life have yet been observed, and which, in some
localities, especially in Anglesea, have been converted into talcose slates and quartz rocks. ^ 2d, The Lin-
gula slates (primordial zone of Barrande), in which that genus of molluscs and a few trilobites (Olenus
and Agnostus) have been found. 3d, Llandeilo formation, of enormous masses of slates and flags, often
calcareous, or with intercalated limestone beds, and also with thick igneous masses, contemporaneous or
intrusive. In this portion of the series, organic life, from graptolites upwards, becomes far more abundant
and diverse in its characters than in the inferior strata. 4th, The Caradoc, forming a kind of intermediate
group, the lower portion connected by its fossils with the inferior Llandeilo, whilst in the higher heds a
mixture of organic remains from the upper Silurian strata is found to occur ; and the strata also are often
conformably deposited. The upper Silurian consists of strata in which calcareous matter is more abundant,
both in the composition of the arenaceous or clayey beds, and in numerous thick limestone courses. It
is divided into the two formations of Wenlock and Ludlow, named from the localities where they are best
exposed.

In Scotland and Ireland probably only the lower portion of the system is fully developed, including
beds representing the Longmynd base, which, near Dublin, contains the peculiar zoophyte, Oldhamia ;
then the lowest zone in which characteristic organic remains occur, and the Caradoc, which forms a pas-
sage to the higher division or upper Silurian, which in these countries is scarcely known. In Scandinavia
the series is more complete, and the rocks in ascending order are fucoid sandstone, alum schist (Lingula
beds), orthoceratite limestone (Llandeilo), graptolite schists, Wenlock limestone, with a feeble representa-
tive of the uppermost Silurian or Ludlow rock. Near Christiania, the lower and upper Silurian, with
their characteristic organic remains, and in united parallel masses, form repeated undulations, the rocks
being chiefly black or grey clay slates, alum slates, and grey compact limestones. In Sweden, the lower
division is known near the Wener and Wetter lakes, and in GEland and in Bornholm. The lowest band
consists of fucoid sandstone, the next of alum slates, with Ogygia, Battus, Olenus ; and the great mass of
the well-known limestone with huge Orthoceratites. In Gothland, the strata are exclusively upper Silurian
(Wenlock) ; and of the wide tract in central Norway—the southern portion, near the Miosen lake, may,
from its fossils, be of the same date. The rocks there, according to Keilhau, are chiefly limestone, with
clay slate and greywacke ; hut in the more northern region, mica and chlorite slates abound, and no fossils
are known, so that they seem more related to the crystalline strata. The unfossiliferous greywacke, near

the North Cape, which we have not examined, has heen considered Devonian, but is more probably
Silurian.

In Russia, the older palaeozoic, on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, was shown by us to be chiefly
lower Silurian, though beds full of upper Silurian fossils occur in Dago and Osel. The most ancient of these
fossihferous strata are remarkable as consisting of nearly unconsolidated mud, sand, and thin-bedded marly
limestone, spread out in vast and almost horizontal sheets over a wide extent of country. In these undis-
turbed beds a continuous succession of organic life has heen traced in one tract from the lowest strata, with
their fucoids, to heds with fossils of true upper Silurian age. Passing below the newer formations in Central
Russia, the older palaeozoic again rises up along the western declivity of the Oural chain, and there seems
chiefly upper Silurian, as shown by its fossils ; hut the strata are now highly inclined and hardened, and
rest on mica slates, chlorite slates, and quartz rocks, which we regard as the metamorphosed equivalents
of the lower Silurian on the eastern side of European Russia.—(See " Geology of Russia," p. 464, &c.)

In Germany, the older palaeozoic of the Thiiringerwald is in great part lower Silurian, based upon

azoic, quartzose schists, and covered transgressively by Devonian, the intermediate upper Silurian being

wanting. The rocks consist of greywacke, slates, and sandstone, with subordinate beds of limestone

and alum slate, and in the lower portion contain numerous fucoid and annelid impressions ; in the

upper portion graptolites, orthoceratites, and some forms of trilobites. In Bohemia, M. Barrande has

demonstrated a complete and symmetrical series of Silurian strata, consisting in ascending order of the

following eight stages (etages), of which four correspond to the lov>r, and four to the upper Silurian of

England, the lower division being by far the most extended, both in its superficial and vertical dimensions.

The lowest division. A, is composed of talcose, chloritic, and other schists, resting below on granite.

3 See Murchison, Silurian System, 1839; Russia and the Ural Mountains, by Murchison, De Verneuil, and Keyserling,
1845 ; and Siluria, by Murchison, 1864.

These schists pass upwards into clay slate, and this, as we ascend, into greywackes or conglomerates,
forming the second division B. Both these divisions are azoic, or contain no organic remains, and cal-
careous matter is also rare in them. The third division, C, is again fine-grained clay slates, or conglome-
rates, with a distinct group of organic remains, constituting M. Barrande's primordiaHauna. In this,
certain trilobites abound, as Agnostus, Paradoxides, Sao, and others, with some Cystides, and a few
species of Orthis. D, the last and chief division of the lower Silurian, is chiefly quartzites, with
schists and conglomerates, but still little limestone. In its fauna, trilobites typical of British rocks
predominate, of the genera Trinucleus, Ogygia, Asaphus, &c. ; and along with them pteropods, gas-
teropods, brachiopods, some rare fragments of orthoceratites; also crinoids, a few corals, and a,bundant
cystidea3. Stage E, the bottom of the upper Silurians, begins with trap rocks intercalated in black
graptolite schists, which pass up into dark grey argillaceous limestones, containing the richest fauna, m
the whole series. The species of trilobites are still numerous ; the cephalopods suddenly assume an im-
mense development, the gasteropods, acephalse, and brachiopods (Terebratula, Spinfer, Orthis, Leptsena,
&c.) increase rapidly ; encrinites are in incalculable numbers, though of few species; and zoophytes also
abound ; many of the fossils being identical with British types. Stage F, a thin-bedded, hard, and often
cherty limestone, shows a decreasing fauna, which continues, in the next stage, G, of compact, greyish, nodu-
lar limestone, in thicker beds ; and in H, the highest group, of grey or yellow slates, animal life becomes
exceedingly poor, compared to any of the inferior divisions. M. Barrande's section represents the whole
in conformable unbroken order, whilst the succession of organic life is marked by a remarkable_ inter-
change of fossils. The general succession is, however, entirely in unison with that of Scandinavia and

the typical regions of England. ,11, 1

In France, also, as seen in Brittany, a trace only of the upper Silurian occurs, and the older palaeozoic
belongs essentially to the lower subdivision. In the first recognisable fossiliferous beds (Llandeilo), trilobites
abound, with a few molluscs ; but these remains have less specific relations to those of Britain than to those
of Bohemia and Spain. In the latter countrj^, and in Portugal, Silurian rocks have again been found in great
abundance, and also chiefly of the lower or older division. Our map, embodying many of the results of the
researches of De Verneuil, D. Sharpe, Casiano de Prado, and others, shows the great development of
these strata along the chief mountain-chains of the Peninsula—along the west coast of Portugal and
adjoining region of Spain—on the flanks of the Guadarama—in the central regions north of Madrid—in
the Sierra Morena, where they contain the long-celebrated quicksilver mines of Almaden—in the moun-
tains of Toledo—and in wide extent in Murcia, on the east, being there rich in ores of lead and silver-
as near Carthagena—and in the Sierra Almagrera. In Sardinia, also, General della Marmora has enabled
us to lay down Silurian rocks containing fossils both of the older and newer types.

The eastern portion of our map shows a considerable extent of older palaeozoic strata, though fossils
of any kind have rarely been found in this region (upper Silurian at Dienten, in the Salzburg Alps). In
some of these localities they are remarkable for rich masses of siderite ; but, from the want of fossils, the
age of such strata is often very uncertain. Further east, this group of deposits is scarcely known in this
southern latitude, though it is not improbable that subsequent researches may show that they form por-
tions of the mountain ranges of Turkey in Europe.

NEWER PALEOZOIC GROUP.

In this group we comprise—The Devonian rocks, or old red sandstone, characterised in some
places by peculiar fossil fishes—this class of animals now first appearing in abundance in the history of
the earth—in other places where limestone beds abound by numerous shells and corals, which appear to have
formed true reefs in these ancient seas; second, the Carboniferous rocks, including the mountain limestone,
with its rich series of marine fossils, and the coal measures, with their numerous plants and valuable beds
of fossil fuel; ikird, The Permian rocks, or upper group of red sandstones, also characterised by peculiar
animal and vegetable remains, though these are less abundant than in the former strata.

In this group the class of reptiles first appears in the history of the earth, one small species, the
Telerpeton Elginense, being found in the old red sandstone of the north of Scotland, two species of
Archegosanrus in the coal of Saarebruck, and an allied reptile in the carboniferous beds of Lanarkshire;
whilst^in the Permian deposits they are still more numerous, and belong to a higher order.

The rocks of this group are best known in the north and west of Europe. In Britain, the succession
from above downwards is the following:—

I Tipper red marls.

Permian, < Magnesian limestone.

/ Lower red sandstone.

(Coal measures.
Carboniferous, < Millstone grit.

( Mountain limestone.

Central England {Herefordshire).

( Sandstones and conglomerates.
Devonian, < Red and green marls, sandstones and
( cornstones.
Red marls and flagstones.

In Rhenish Prussia and a small portion of Belgium, where the series of carboniferous and Devonian
rocks is well developed, the coal-bearing strata are usually first underlaid by the " flotzleerer Sandstein,"
an equivalent of the millstone grit, and next by Possidonomya-schiefer and Kiesel-schiefer—occasionally
indeed by limestone, which, with the above-mentioned schists, constitute the representative of the British
mountain limestone. These strata are succeeded inferiorly by a greatly expanded tripartite Devonian
group, in some tracts swelled out by great inteiiaminations of " Schaalstein," or volcanic ash. The upper
part of this group is composed of Kramenzel-stein and Cypridina-schiefer ; the middle Devonian is made
up of the well-known Eifel limestone and its underlying Calceola-schiefer; whilst the lower Devonian
consists of the Wissenbach and Caub slates, and the spirifer sandstone, or Coblentz grey wacke; no true
upper Silurian rock being anywhere visible. We do not here allude to the nomenclature of M. Dumont,
because none of his divisionary lines, founded on lithological characters (not even his Terrain Rhenan), are
consistent with our classification as established upon the distribution and classification of former life.i

In reference to geographical distribution, our map shows that these deposits are chiefly developed in
the north and west of Europe. They cover four-fifths of Ireland,—the Devonian and lower or unproductive
carboniferous strata occupying the widest spaces, whilst the coal measures and Permian are more restricted
in their range. In Britain, they form a broad band in the centre of England, running from Devonshire to
the south of Scotland, and presenting the full succession given above. In Scotland, the Permian forma-
tion is not known, though some of its newer red sandstones may yet prove of that age; and in the north
of that country only the lower beds, or old red sandstone, full of its singular fishes, are seen, resting
unconformably on the crystalline schists. The former wide extent of this formation is shown by the frag-
ments found spread at intervals over the mainland of Scotland, from Aberdeen to the west coast of Inver-
ness and Sutherland, and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and by the red sandstones and conglomerates
to which the same age must be assigned, on the west coast and in the centre of Scandinavia. In Russia,
these formations have a greater extent than in all the rest of Europe conjoined ; but the upper and lower
divisions chiefly occur, to the exclusion of the central coal-bearing strata. The Devonian formation
extends on its south border from the Gulf of Riga to Voroneje and the Don, and on the north-west side
in a broad band to Archangel and the White Sea, reappearing in the Timan Mountains, and in narrow
bands on the western slopes of the Oural. Within these ranges the carboniferous rocks, with scarcely a
trace of coal, spread out in the broad dome-like plateau where the Don, Dnieper, Duna, and Volga have
their rise, and run north in a narrower band to the mouth of the Mezene river on the White Sea, whence
they may be traced, though beyond the limits of our map, to Bear Island and Spitzbergen in the far
north. They again bound the chain of the Timan and Oural Mountains, though in narrower bands, being
everywhere overlaid by the next, or Permian formation, which has an enormous development, not only in
the province whence one of us took its name, but also in the north-west, throughout the whole upper
basin of the Dvina. In the south of Russia, on the lower course of the Don, this group again appears,
and here consists of carboniferous strata, with coal-beds wrought to a considerable extent.

The western margin of this group, in France and Belgium, consists of true coal-measures, sometimes
associated with, sometimes underlaid by, mountain limestone, and analogous to the coal-fields of Britain.
These deposits in central France present a different character—the mountain limestone being wanting,
and the coal, formed in small basins amid the crystalline strata, occurring in thick irregular beds, charac-
terised by Palffionisci and other small fishes. The great mass of the strata extending from the Ardennes
and Eifel to the north bank of the Rhine, is, however, of Devonian age, with limestones full of the char-
acteristic molluscs and corals, and in part covered by carboniferous deposits. The sedimentary for-
mations in the Harz mountains consist chiefly of Devonian rocks (lower, middle, upper)—though a
certain portion of these to south-east, near Harzgerode, must be termed uppermost Silurian. In that
region, however, the formations are so highly dislocated that no physical order can be well followed
out. Large tracts certainly pertain to the lower carboniferous strata, particularly around the mines of
Clausthal, where the inversions and fractures are most remarkable. This fragmentary chain, so
pierced by granites and various intrusive rocks, is to a great extent surrounded by a zone of Permian
rocks—which in the south-eastern tract consist of a vast thickness of Rothe Todte Liegende, Kupfer-
schiefer, and Zechstein, and an overlying red sandstone—these constituting, as in Thuringia and many
other parts of Germany, a lower " Trias." The red sandstone, which constitutes the base of this
group, has been pierced, near Eisenach, to a depth of 2000 feet in search of coal, and this is exclusive of
800 feet of powerful conglomerates with psaronites ; then follows the " Kupfer-schiefer," which, though
only a foot or two thick, has afforded so much copper and silver; and next the Zechstein, with its dolo-
mites and gypsum, the equivalent of the English magnesian limestone. Lastly, the Permian group is
completed by an overlying red sandstone, often very earthy and marly, containing (though very rarely)
calamites. In central Europe true coal and Devonian deposits are well known in Silesia and Moravia ;
but, farther to the east, have only been recognised in a few points—as the Devonian near Gratz, and the
lower carboniferous near Bleiberg in Carinthia.

South of the Alps this group has been only recently detected in the north of Italy, in Tuscany,
but more fully in Sardinia, where true coal-plants have been found. In Spain, the Devonian is very fully
represented, the mass of the paleozoic formations of the Pyrenees being of this age, though older fossils
also occur. The great chain of the Sierra Cantabrica also consists, in its central portion, of Devonian
strata, overlaid on the east by the richest coal-field in Spain. Coal is again known in Portugal, and both
carboniferous and Devonian rocks occur in the Sierra Morena. In southern Europe (including the
Alps) no Permian deposits are known, all the newer red sandstones of the Iberian peninsula being pro-
bably of triassic age.

After a long interval, true Devonian strata again appear in abundance in Asia Minor. They are well
known on both shores of the Bosphorus, and, according to M. Tchihatchefi", form many of the most impor-
tant mountain-chains as far east as the Taurus. Beyond this they have been observed on the flanks of
Mount Ararat by Abich, and in several places on the shores of the Caspian ; also in the Taurus Mountains
at Erzeroum. Carboniferous strata, abundantly charged with fossils and coal, occupy many miles of the
southern coast of the Black Sea near Eregli. Though now largely worked for the purposes of the war, they
have hitherto almost escaped the notice of geologists. In these regions no Permian strata have been
discovered.

1 See Table of Comparison with DiimontV names—" Siluria," p, 382.

MESOZOIC GROUP.

In this group are comprised the Trias, the Jura, including both the lias and oolite, the Wealden,
and the Cretaceous strata. The Trias is best known in Germany, where its central group, the muschel-
kalk, with its underlying " bunter sandstein," and its overlying " keuper " are most fully developed;
and where it is remarkable in containing the Nothosaurus, Mastodonsaurus, Trematosaurus, and other
Labyrinthodont species (H. von Meyer), as well as a profusion of marine shells entirely distinct from those
even of the youngest of the palaeozoic formations. In England the sandstone beds only appear, and hence
the term Trias seems inapplicable. From the south-west of Germany it extends into the east of France
and Switzerland, and is well known on both flanks of the Alps, as red sandstones, limestones, and
dolomites, often associated with quartzose porphyry. In the eastern portion of the chain, it contains
in its uppermost band the remarkable beds of St Cassian, celebrated for their peculiar assemblage of
fossils—and strata of the same age have been recently recognised in several other places. In southern
Germany and France, the Trias is rich in mines of rock-salt; in Silesia, some of the dolomitic lime-
stones contain abundant ores of zinc, but are very poor in organic remains. In Southern Europe, the
Trias is most developed in Spain, where it has been recognised in many places by De Verneuil and others,
though chiefly as red sandstones. The central limestone, so characteristic of the formation in Germany,
was considered wanting; but we have sincere pleasure in announcing that our distinguished friend De
Verneuil discovered it last year, with its characteristic fossils, in several of the provinces.

The second member, or Jura, including the lias and oolitic series, far surpasses the Trias both in
geographical extent and in the number and variety of its organic remains. Of these, more than four thou-
sand species are known in this formation, differing not merely in the species but in the genera from the palee-
ozoic races. The trilobites, and most of the peculiar genera of brachiopods and fishes, have disappeared.
New races of Echinoderms, especially of echinidae, now abound : of the old cephalopods only the Nautili
remain, whilst the Ammonites appear in very numerous forms: decapod crustaceans also now appear, though
chiefly the macruri; and though osseous fishes are still wanting, yet true chimseroid fishes, ganoids with
homocerc tails, including numerous genera of Lepidoids and Saui'oids, with the Pycnodonts, distinguish
this formation from the former. The numerous reptiles, especially gigantic Saurians, crocodiles, and the first
Chelonians, also characterise this period in the earth's history. The numerous alternating thin beds of dark
clays and limestones, often of an oolitic texture, indicate deposition in an open sea, subject to little disturbance.

In England, this formation ranges from the south coast through the centre of the country to Yorkshire
on the east coast. After a long interval it reappears in the north of Scotland, at Elgin, Brora, and in the
Western Isles. These fragments, connected with the similar strata in the north of Ireland, and with a few
traces in Faroe and Iceland—where the fine double refracting calc-spar seems to belong to an altered bed of
this formation—indicate a much wider extension of the Jurassic deposits in this region, now either buried
below the ocean or destroyed by its waves, except where they have been protected by the harder masses
of trap rocks poured out over them. With this basin we may conjoin the beds known in Scania, in the
south of Sweden. In the extreme north of Russia it fills, according to Keyserling, the desolate valley
of the Petchora river, and thence extends south, along the watershed dividing the rivers that flow into
the White Sea from the affluents of the Volga. Jurassic beds (dark Oxfordian clays), full of ammonites
and other characteristic fossils, with remains of fishes, ichthyosauri, and other reptiles, are common near
Moscow. In southern Russia, in the Crimea, rising up in the mountain ranges between KafFa and Sevas-
topol, and on both sides of the Caucasus, rocks of this age are well known, but characterised by species
of fossils in a great part distinct from those in the north of the same region, showing that a diversity of
climate now prevailed in this part of Europe. It is truly remarkable that the Oxfordian member of the
Jurassic system, which is so largely developed in Russia almost to the entire exclusion of the inferior
members and the Lias, should range into the heart of Asia, and be the characteristic rock of that age
in Northern Hindostan and the Hhnalaya Mountains!

In Central and Western Europe, this formation is also very fully developed, having apparently been
deposited in an ocean on the shores of a large island or peninsula, extending east and west from Bohemia
to Belgium, and formed of the older strata lately mentioned. Of this island, the Jurassic rocks in West-
phalia and Poland formed the northern shore; its western margin was bounded by the basin in which
the Jurassic beds of England and France were laid down ; whilst on the south and east it extended con-
tinuously through the region now occupied by the Alps, which then could have had a partial existence only,"
into Italy, Dalmatia, and probably even more remote regions. In the Jura mountains, whence the forma-
tion is named, the lowest bed resting on the trias is the lias, consisting below of sandstones and limestones
with abundance of the Gryphaea arcuata, and above, of marls, with numerous Ammonites and Plicatulas.
On this follows the lower Oolite, consisting' of a ferruginous oolite, compact limestones with few fossils,
and of other limestones and marls with Ostrea acuminata. The middle Oolite, again, is composed of marls
representing the Oxford clay, and an upper bed full of peculiar concretions of ochrey clay (Terrain a
chailles) with many amorphozoa, cidarites, and other fossils. The upper group consists of the coral lime-
stone, with Diceras arietina, Ostreae, many cidarites and crinoids, of marls with Melania, Mytilus, and
Astarte; another limestone, with cidarites and crinoids; then marls and limestones, equivalent to the
Kimmeridge clay of England; and a higher group, also of marls, with Exogyra and Lyriodon, and lime-
stones with Nerinea and Turbo, which represent the Portland stone. In the Alps this formation also
appears, but the strata so broken and contorted by the subsequent upheaval of that vast chain of moun-
tains, and so distinct, both in lithological and palaeontological features, that little more than the parallel-
ism of the great leading divisions with those of Western Europe can be recognised. In this region the
originally horizontal beds are now often reversed in position, raised up into enormous mountains, and,
as already stated, are in many places highly crystalline. The Jura in France forms two connected circles,
one nearly enclosing the tertiary basin of Paris, and connected with the English strata, the other round
the crystalline rocks of the centre. In this country, as in England, the well-known dark-coloured marly
and arenaceous clays, and blue or grey limestones of the lias, form the base of the formation, covered by
the lighter-coloured oolitic limestones, separated from each other by intermediate bands of clay. In the
south of Europe the Jura formation is well seen in Spain, especially on the Mediterranean coast. In
Italy it forms some of the higher parts of the Apennines, but has not been well separated from the over-
lying cretaceous strata. This separation is still more uncertain in Turkey in Europe and Greece, though
both in these countries and in Asia Minor the cretaceous, or even newer formations, appear to prevail.

In the south-east of England, in some neighbouring parts of France, in Hanover, Westphalia, and a
few other localities, the Jurassic beds are followed by the series of fresh-water deposits named the Wealden.
In England and Germany a threefold division of these strata into the Purbeck beds, Hastings sands, and
Weald clay has been recognised. In Hanover, where the formation consists especially of clays and marls,
with subordinate beds of sandstone and limestone, it is remarkable for containing coal and iron-stone of suffi-
cient value to be wrought (Biickeburg). The iron ore is an argillaceous carbonate, in rounded concretions,
occasionally forming continuous layers. Of the coal, from sixteen to twenty beds are known in the Oster-
wald. Among the vegetable remains are six species of Sphenopteris, nine of Pecopteris, four of Cyclop-
teris, two of Cycadites, and three of Thuites; in the animals, there are five species of Unio, thirty-seven
of Cyrena, four of Cyclas, nine of Melania, eight of Paludina, and eight of Cypris, with several fishes,
saurians, and tortoises. The fossils of these deposits are, however, chiefly distinct from those of the
marine formations above and below, leaving their connection doubtful,—some geologists uniting them with
the Jura, others with the chalk.

The highest group in this series, or the Cretaceous, is named from the white earthy limestone or chalk
which prevails in it in England, France, and parts of Germany and Russia, and which seems almost
peculiar to this period of the history of the earth. But this lithological character is very fugitive, and
has led to considerable mistakes. Thus, for example, strata containing precisely the same fossils which in
Russia on the east, and in Britain on the west, characterise masses of pure white chalk, are found in fine
silicious sandstones (obrer Quader of the Elbe) near Dresden. This " obrer Quader " is the equivalent of the
uppermost or flinty chalk of Britain. The "planer Kalk" of this tract, a marly, sandy, and very
impure limestone, mineralogically undistinguishable from the British upper greensand or " malm rock,"
is still an integral portion of the white chalk formation; whilst the " Untrer " or lower quader sandstone,
which for a long time passed current for our lower green sandstone, is clearly (from its very numerous
fossils) the exact equivalent of our lower chalk-marl, &c.

Again, in parts of Northern Germany, where the Cretaceous rocks are thrown into vertical mural
masses, and often inverted (northern flank of the Harz), mere lithological characters might strangely mislead
an English geologist; for the only white chalky rocks near Goslar are of older tertiary age, whilst the
true representations of the chalk (as in Saxony) are light-coloured silicious sandstones (Teufel's Mauer,
&c.) In Northern Germany a zone of clay representing our gault is occasionally visible, but in other
places the fossils of this age occur even in a red sandstone (east of Paderborn). ^ On the whole, the grand
triple formation of the lower greensand of Fitton, which we have ourselves particularly examined, is most
imperfectly represented on the Continent, i.e., in its upper and central masses (ferruginous and lower green-
sands). Its lower member, which with us is well seen in the Atherfield rocks (Isle of Wight), expands, how-
ever, into an important formation in Northern Germany (Hils Bildungen and Conglomerat), and into great
crystalline limestones in the Alps. The upper member of the cretaceous group is rich in organic remains,
sponges, foraminifera, polypifera, radiata, (marsupites, ananchytes), brachiopods, and fishes. With this
formation the secondary or mesozoic group terminates, the boundary between it and the tertiary deposits
being strongly marked by the complete disappearance of the ammonites, belemnites, nerinea, exogyra,
the cestraciont and hybodont fishes, and many genera of animals. It is not less marked by the com-
mencement, in the superior deposits, of the mammalia, birds, serpents, true batrachians, and many groups
of radiata, molluscs, and fishes.

The geographical distribution of the cretaceous strata is remarkable, as in this group the influence of
the present isothermal lines is regarded as first clearly shown. In the British Islands, Flamborough Head
in England, the north of Ireland, and some fragments in Aberdeenshire in Scotland, are its northern
limits. It is then seen at Thisted in Jutland, and in the south of Sweden. Following it into Russia,
it descends much further south, conformable to the present course of the isothermals, till in the eastern
part of our map it does not extend north of the basin of the Caspian, and thus far south of the arctic
boundary of the Jura, though it appears very fully developed both on the south declivity of the Caucasus
and in Asia Minor, Indeed, both in the south and east of our map it appears to occupy a more important
place than in the west or north.

TERTIARY GROUP.

In this group we comprise all the deposits superior to the chalk, however m mineral

composition, and whether formed in the sea or in fresh water. Its inferior limit towards the chalk has
recently undergone considerable change,—a great portion of the nummulite rocks of the Carpathians, Alps,
and Italy having been classed with the older series previous to the recent publication of a memoir on these
regions.® In this memoir it was shown that the great group of strata characterised by the presence of this
peculiar organism, and which prevail so extensively in Southern Europe, extend trom the basin of
the Mediterranean, through Asia Minor and Syria, even to the foot of the Himalayas, belong not to the
chalk but to the tertiary group. As this rectification of the position of the nummulite rocks has not
yet been fully carried out on maps, particularly in Italy, Turkey, and some other parts of Eastern
Europe (though M. Studer has adopted it for Switzerland), the boundaries ot the cretaceous and tertiary
groups are so far uncertain.

2 See Murchison on the Alps, Apennines, and Carpathians-Quarterly Geological Journal, vol. v., p. 157.

Our map shows tliat, as the olJer strata prevailed in the north of Europe, so the centre and south
have most recently emerged from the waters. From the south of England, tertiary strata extend almost
continuously through Northern Germany and Russia to the shores of the Black Sea and Caspian. In the
southern part of the map, also, all the great rivers, almost without exception, flow through hasins of
tertiary strata—and large portions, even of the loftiest mountain-chains, are formed of the same deposits.
These formations, however, are of widely different age; and great diversity prevails, both in their mineral
character and organic remains, as we pass from basin to basin and country to country. In respect of
age, two distinct groups may be recognised—an older, including the eocene and more ancient miocene,
and a newer, including the higher miocene, the pliocene, and more recent deposits. These two groups
show very distinct characters, the flora and fauna of the older group being entirely distinct from that of
the newer, throughout which great similarity prevails. There are but few species common to the two groups,
and even the genera of mammalia and plants are for the most part distinct. Of the species in the older
group, very few have continued to live on to recent times ; and it is specially characterised by the nummu-
lites of the sea, the palseotheres, anoplotheres, lophodons, and allied mammals of the land. In the
upper group, not only do living species more abound, but we find also greater approximation to the present
climatal conditions of the locality. Thus, in the mammalia, there are not only the extinct deinotheres and
mastodons, but species of elephas, rhinoceros, and sus ; and in the vegetation, trees of the families of
Laurineffi, Acerinese, Amentacese, and Juglande®. In this small map we have not attempted their divi-
sion ; but would generally include in the former the greater part of the beds in the London basin, in
the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, in the Paris basin, Belgium, North Germany (where London clay
fossils have been found close to Berlin), of Poland, and portions of Southern Russia. In the south of
France they fill the valley of Languedoc and Provence, covered in the centre by the newer series, and
skirt both flanks of the Pyrenees. They also form great deposits, often in a quasi crystalline state, within
and along the flanks of the Alps, and in the Apennines rise to some of the loftiest summits. On the
opposite shore of the Adriatic, nummulite rocks, or older tertiary, are also well known; and in Asia
Minor and Syria, where still but imperfectly separated from the chalk, cover wide spaces, and rise to great
elevations. For the newer series, we shall only refer to some portions of the shores of the North Sea,
the river-basins of the Rhine, Po, and Danube, some parts of the coasts of Italy and Sicily, and the great

Aralo-Caspian depression.

A most important distinction in these beds has reference to the place where they were formed. Some
deposits have taken place in the ocean or salt water, others in fresh-water lakes of more or less extent.
In Northern Europe, beds of marine origin seem chiefly to prevail, though fresh-water deposits are also
well known both in England and in France. In Auvergne, the formations are entirely fresh water; on
the Rhine and in Switzerland vast fluviatile deposits abound. The upper tertiaries in Austria, Hungary,
Tuscany, Greece, and Asia Minor, are also often fresh-water deposits. Spain, however, probably shows
larger formations of this nature than any other part of Europe,—the great tertiary basin of the upper
Douro, between Salamanca, Leon, Burgos, and Segovia, the central valley of the Ebro, and the not inferior
basin of the Tagus, between the Guadarrama and Sierra Morena, being the remains of ancient lakes. In
Murcia, near Seville, and the south, the tertiaries, on the other hand, are chiefly marine, whilst at Lisbon
marine beds overlie the fresh-water deposits.

In connection with the more recent deposits, we have also inserted on the map the line marking the
most southerly distribution of huge, northern erratic blocks derived from the Scandinavian mountains.
These are most remarkable for numbers and size in the German plains south of the Baltic ; but similar
transported stones are found on the coasts of Scotland, and as far south as Yorkshire. Full collections
of the characteristic rocks and fossils of Sweden have even been made in Northern Germany.

IGNEOUS ROCKS.

Of these we have formed three groups,—the first including the granites, syenites, and a few other
crystalline masses closely connected with them; the second including the porphyries, diorites, dolerites,
basalts, and other so-called trap rocks of the British Isles; whilst the third contains the products of extinct
or active volcanoes, and some of the trachytes and other igneous rocks whose volcanic nature is best
established. Though no very precise lines of division, either from mineral composition or period of pro-
duction, can be drawn between these formations, still the marked distinctions between the extreme
members of each group appeared to render it important to endeavour to distinguish them.

The classification of the igneous rocks depending chiefly on their mineral character, only partially
corresponds to that of the stratified rocks, based on entirely different considerations. Hence, though in
general the granites are more frequently associated with the crystalline schists and older paleeozoic, the
trap rocks with the newer paleozoic and mesozoic, and volcanic eruptions with more recent deposits, still
exceptions are very numerous. The geographical distribution of these igneous rocks is also remarkable.
The larger masses of granite range along the western or Atlantic shore of Europe, from Spain and Portugal,
through central France and Brittany, Ireland, and Scotland, to Scandinavia and Finland. The Riesenge-
birge and Erzgebirge in Saxony, with the Bohmerwald and Moravian mountains, form another extensive
granitic mass, highly influential on the physical peculiarities of the European continent. The granite in
other portions of our map, in the Alps, Carpathians, and Oural, in Corsica, Sardinia, Southern Italy, and
Turkey, appears less important either in extent or influence.

The trap rocks are also most abundant in the western portion of our map, especially in the northern
portions of the British Islands. In this region they sometimes form large tabular masses overlying the
stratified rocks, as in the north of Ireland, the Hebrides, Faroe, and Iceland, or mountain ranges of con-
siderable extent, as in the centre and south of Scotland. In Scandinavia similar rocks occur, often so
richly impregnated with iron as to be used for ores of that metal. Similar relations are known in the
Oural, whilst the entire absence of igneous rocks of any class is a remarkable characteristic of the great
plains and unbroken sedimentary deposits of Central Russia.

The basalts, trachytes, and associated igneous products in Germany and Hungaiy, are often more
intimately connected with our third division of volcanic rocks. Of these, two classes may be formed accord-
ing as they are connected with extinct or still active volcanoes; but the distinction is less essential than
might at first appear. The most remarkable of the former division are the Eifel, Siebengebirge, Wester-
wald, Vogel's, and Rhon-Gebirge in western Germany ; the vicinity of Carlsbad, and Schemnitz ; Eperies,
Tokay, and parts of the Carpathians; in France, Auvergne, the Cantal, and Vivarais ; in Spain, the
vicinity of Olot in Catalonia. In Italy and its islands both classes abound ; and this is also true of
Iceland in the remote north-west, of Asia Minor and the Caucasus in the extreme south-east of our map.
Of volcanoes that have been active in historic times, the best known are the Icelandic group (above
twenty in number), Vesuvius, Etna, and the connected vents in the Lipari Islands.

In examining the map, perhaps the most remarkable feature in regard to these igneous rocks is the
very limited space they occupy on the surface, even in the most mountainous regions. Thus, the granite
generally covers but a small space compared to the associated crystalline strata, and the other igneous rocks
appear in still more limited masses. Their importance, in other respects, is however very great, marking
out, as they do, the most important mountain ranges, and giving rise to those changes during which the
rocks have become filled with rich mineral veins. In reference to these rocks, we need scarcely mention
that the scale of our map has not permitted us to mark the many detached veins or dykes wliich occur
in various countries.

ALBERESE. Marly calcareous beds, with fucoidal impressions in Tuscany, where they belong to the upper Eocene.

ALLUVIUM. Beds deposited in historic times by springs, rivers, or lakes.

alpine LIMESTONE {AlpenkalTcatein, German). Limestones common in many parts of the Alps, and now classed
partly with the Trias, partly with the Jurassic rocks.

alum slate {AlaunscMefer, German). Black carbonaceous clay slates, often containing much iron pyrites, and pro-
ducing alum on decomposition. They are common in the Silurian rocks of Scotland, where they often contain
graptolites, and of Wales, Sweden, Saxony, &c.; also in the coal-formation and Jurassic rocks, as at Whitby.

AMMONITICO rosso, a red coloured limestone in the Italian Alps, shown by its fossils. Ammonites tatricus,
athleta, anceps, Terebratula diphya, and triangulus, &c., to be an ectuivalent of the middle Jura.

AMPHIBOLITE. Hornblende rock.

ANAMESITE. A fine-grained variety of dolerite, well seen at Steinheim, near Hanau.

ANTHRACITE FORMATION. A group of strata containing true carboniferous plants, associated with strata con-
taining belemnites and other lias fossils, known in the Maurienne, the Tarantaise near Briangon, and in other
parts of the Alps of Oisans. The true explanation of the phenomena seems to be found in the violent contortion
and squeezing together of beds of different age.

APENNINE LIMESTONE. Limestone forming the chain of the Apennines in Italy, now ascertained to be of
very diverse age, some portions Jurassic, others cretaceous, and others, in which nummulites occur, older Tertiary.

APHANITE. a very fine grained, apparently compact, igneous rock of the trap formation, generally of a dark-green
colour, and occasionally a compact Diorite with hornblende, or Dolerite with augite.

ARALO-CASPIAN. a term proposed by Murchison and his associates to mark the fact, that the fossiliferous rocks
of an enormous area around the Caspian and Aral, contain exclusively the remains of animals (fresh water and
brackish) which are now peculiar to those seas.

ARGILE PLASTIQUE. Plastic clays and marls, with lignite and fluviatile shells, found in the lower Tertiary of
the Paris basin.

ARKOSE. a sandstone of felspar and quartz. Occurs in the coal-formation in Scotland, in the Trias in Germany, and
the Lias in France.

o

ASAR. Long mounds of detritus in Sweden and Norway. In Ireland similar mounds are named Eskar; in Scotland,
often Kaims.

AUGITE R.OCK. A dark green, grey, or black crystalline rock, consisting essentially of augite. It is found near
Lherz, in the valley of Vicdessous in the Pyrenees, and from this place is sometimes named Lherzolite.

AYMESTRY LIMESTONE (Murchison). A grey sub-crystalline argillaceous limestone, forming the central portion
of the Ludlow formation in the Upper Silurian of England.

BAGSHOT SANDS. Beds of siliceous sands occurring near Bagshot in Surrey, and containing marine shells, which

form part of the lower tertiary. " a ,

BASALT. An apparently uniform compact, dark grey, or black rock, composed of augite and labradorite, with
magnetic iron and olivine. Belongs to the trap or volcanic family, and is common in Scotland, Hessia, Sasonv,
Bohemia, in the Eifel, Auvergne, and other regions.

BEEESITE. A peculiar granite, containing gold veins, named from Beresowsk in the Oural, where it occurs.

BIANCONE. A white compact limestone in the Venetian Alps, containing Crioceratites, Inocerami, and Echino-
derms, of lower cretaceous age.

BOLCA LIMESTONE. A thinly-laminated compact limestone of the tertiary period, remarkable for its numerous
remains of fossil fishes.

BRADFORD CLAY. A local formation, lying on the Great Oolite in Wiltshire.

BUNTEB SANDSTEIN FORMATION. The GrSs bigarr6 of the French, the lower portion of the New red sand-
stone of England ; is the lower member of the trias. Its name is taken from the variously coloured sandstones

and marls of which it consists.

CALCAIRE GROSSIER {GrohJcaUc, German). A coarse sandy limestone, containing very many fossil shells, in the
lower tertiary of the Paris basin. It forms the material of which that city is chiefly built.

CAPEOTINA LIMESTONE. A member of the cretaceous formation in the Alps.

CARADOC SANDSTONE (Murchison). The upper member of the Lower Silurian of England.

CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE German ; Gatcaire carbonifere, French ; mountain limestone, or

Bergkalk, of some authors). A limestone, with marine shells and corals, forming the chief lower member of the
carboniferous rocks. It is most fully developed in the British Islands, Belgium, and some neighbouring parts of
France and Germany.

CARPATHIAN SANDSTONE. Sandstones of various age have been confused under this term ; one of the most
important is that which, with shales, maris, and gypsum, contains the salt-mines of Wielicka, and other places
on the northern side of the Carpathians. It is the equivalent of the Vienna sandstone, and of upper tertiary a^e •
another is of lower cretaceous age. ' t-i- ^ .t^x^ia^jr a^c,

CASSIAN (St) BEDS. A group of red sandstone limestone, and dolomite beds, found near St Cassian in the Tyrol,
near Recoaro, Hallstadt, and many other parts of the Eastern Alps. They are said to contain orthoceratites
ceratites, and ammonites, conjoined in the same bed, and are now considered as the equiTalent7rf th^pper S

CHLORITE SLATE. A dark-green slaty rock, composed chiefly of chlorite, with some quartz and felspar It is not
uncommon in the crystalline strata lu the west of Scotland and in Tyrol, and is remaSe for thi rany beautS
minerals it contains.

CIPOLLINO. Granular limestone, mixed with mica/common in the crystalline strata of many parts of Europe.

CLYMENIA LIMESTONE. A portion of the Devonian formation known at Petherwin, Devon ; near Saalfield in
Thuringia ; Elbersreuth near the Fichtelgebirge ; the Rheuish provinces of Prussia, and other phices

CORAL-RAG. A member of the middle oolite of England, named from the numerous remains of corals it contains.

CORNBRASH. A portion of the lower oolites in England.

CORNSTONE. Beds of red or greenish concretionary limestone, found in the Old red sandstone, or Devonian forma-
tion of England.

CRAG. Upper tertiary beds of sand and pebbles, found in Suffolk and containing many remains of marine animals
It is divided into the Coralline and Red crag. The Norwich Crag is a more recent group of flurio Se

origin.

CYPRIDINA SLATES. An upper member of the Devonian formation of Germany. ,

DEVONIAN SYSTEM, or Old Red Sandstonk. The lowest formation of the Newer palseozoic group.

DIABASE. A fine-grained crystalline mixture pf augite and albite or labradorite, and thus equivalent to manv of tb^
greenstones in the coal-formation of Scotland (Sahsbury Crags, &c.) Common also in the Harz and other parts of

Germany.

DILUVIUM, Older detrital deposits, formed by causes not now acting in the locality.

DIORITE. A granular compound of hornblende and albite, usually of a dark-green colour, belonging to the trm
family. ' P

DIRT-BED. Earthy beds alternating with compact strata, especially known in the Purbeck wcalden.

DOGGER. Synonyme of the lower oolite, in some parts of Germany.

DOLERITE. Granular crystalline mixture of labradorite and augite ; almost always with some magnetic iron ore.
Is dark green or grey, and then named Graustein (greystone.) Variety of trap.

DOLOMITE. Consists essentially of carbonate of magnesia (dolomite, or bitter spar), but often mixed with carbonate
of lime. Very abundant in many parts of the crystalline, pateozoic, and mesozoic formations, and especially iu
the Permian formation, and in the Trias of the Alps.

DOMITE. A fine granular, or rough, earthy, and friable variety of trachyte, of grey, brown, or yellow colours, found
especially on the Puy de Dome in Auvergne. Volcanic.

DRIFT. The term now usually substituted by English geologists for Diluvium, as implying no hypothesis.

DUDLEY LIMESTONE and SHALE. Equivalents of the Wenlock beds in the upper Silurian. Remarkable for fine
corals, trilobites, and other fossils.

ECLOGITE. Green crystalline horneblende (or diallage), with garnet. Closely related to the greenstones or trap
rocks. Occurs in the Saualp in Styria, in the Fichtelgebirge, and Grecian Archipelago.

ELVANS. Veins or dykes of red felspar porphyry, in the clay-slate (Devonian) and granite of Cornwall.

EOCENE. Sir Charles Lyell's name for the older tertiary, in which four per cent, or under, of recent species occur.

ERRATIC BLOCKS. Large rounded or angular masses of stone, found at a distance from the place where the
rocks from which they are derived occur. Known in the upper tertiary or diluvial deposits. In Europe the
chief centre of dispersion has been from the north, Scandinavia and Finland. See Map.

EUPHOTIDE. Synonyme of Gabbro.

EURITE. A fine scaly mixture of felspar and quartz, sometimes with a few distinct crystals of quartz or hornblende.
Named from its easy fusibility. Occurs in Scotland, the Harz, and Brittany.

FAHLUNS OF TOURAINE. Beds of sand and marl, with many marine shells, in the basin of the Loire ; belong
to the Miocene or newer tertiary group.

FELSPAR PORPHYRY. Consists of a basis of compact or crystalline felspar, with crystals of orthoclase or albite ;
occasionally also of quartz or hornblende. Common in the Silurian rocks of Scotland, Cumberland, Wales, &c.,
and in the crystalline schists of Scotland, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe.

FLOTZLEERER SANDSTEIN. A term of the Prussian geologists for the equivalent of the British millstone grit.

FLYSCH. Dark-coloured slates, sandstones, impure limestones, marls, and breccias, with impressions of fucoids, Chon-
drites intricatus, and C. targionii. Common in many parts of the Alps, and equivalent to the nummulite or lower
tertiary.

FULLER'S EARTH. One of the members of the English oolite in Wiltshire.

GABBRO, or Euphotide. A coarse granular mixture of labradorite and diallage, or hypersthene ; occasionally with
mica, garnet, or iron pyrites. Belongs to the greenstones or trap family.

GALLESTRO. A marly rock of distinct slaty friable texture, and striped of red, green, bright brown, or other lively
colours. Occurs in the Apennines, often near igneous rocks. The Galestrini slates of Tuscany belong partly to the
lower Eocene, partly to the upper chalk.

GAULT. Dark-blue clays or marls, lying between the lower and upper greensaud in the cretaceous system of Eng-
land.

GLARUS SLATES. Dark-coloured slate clays, with many impressions of fish, remains of a bird and tortoise. Classed
by Agassiz as chalk, but since shown by one of us to be lower tertiary, or Eocene.

GNEISS. A granular mixture of felspar, quartz, and mica, with a distinct slaty texture. One of the chief constituents
of the crystalline or metamorphic group of strata.

GOSAU FORMATION. Various sandy, marly, and calcareous rocks, in the valley of Gosau near Salzburg, and other
parts of the Alps. It contains hippurites, corals, tornatella, and other chalk fossils.

GRANITE. Granular crystalline mixture of felspar (orthoclase and oligoclase, more rarely labradorite or albite),
quartz, and mica ; often contains hornblende, tourmaline, garnet, or other minerals. Very common in every part
of the earth.

GRANULITE. A fine-grained scaly mixture of felspar, with a little quartz, and occasionally a small proportion of
mica. It seems often a variety of gneiss.

GREENSAND. Lowest member of the English cretaceous strata.

GREENSTONE. General designation for the distinctly granular hornblende and augite rocks of the trap family,
including diabase, diorite, dolerite, and others.

GREYWACKE. Grey-coloured rock, composed of grains or fragments of quartz, clay slate, flinty slate, and scales of
mica, in a firm argillaceous basis. It is a very common rock in the older palajozoic formations, as the Silurian of
Britain, Scandinavia, See., and in the Devonian of the Rhine. The Germans sometimes name the whole lower
palseozoic formations Grauwacken Gruppe.

GYPSUM. Sulphate of lime, in a more or less pure state. Occurs either in veins or beds, the latter most common in
the mesozoic group of strata, as in many places near the foot of the Harz,in the Thiiringerwald, in Switzerland and
Tyrol.

HASTINGS SANDS. Lower member of the English Wealden.

HEADON SERIES. Sands, clays, and fresh-water limestones, in the lower tertiary of the Isle of Wight.

HILSFORMATION. German synonyme for the lowest cretaceous beds, the Neocomien or lowest greensand.

HIPPURITE LIMESTONE. Limestone containing many hippurites ; common in the south of Europe, and on the
shores of the Mediterranean. It there represents the chalk of Northern Europe.

HORNBLENDE ROCK. Granular hornblende with a little felspar, a variety of greenstone or trap.

HORNBLENDE SLATE. Rock composed of crystalline hornblende almost alone, with a schistose or laminar struc-
ture. Often passes into mica slate.

HYPERSTHENE ROCK. Granular mixture of hypersthene and felspar, found in the Isle of Skye and in the Harz.

JURA FORMATION, Synonyme of the Oolite (including the Lias) formation.

KARST LIMESTONES. Limestone rocks of grey, yellow, or brown colours, and containing many remarkable caves,
which form the Karst mountains between Leybacb and Triest. The lower beds contain hippurites, and belong to
the chalk ; the upper masses, with many nummulites, are older tertiary.

KELLOWAY ROCK. A member of the English oolites.

KEUPER. Name of a fine-grained grey sandstone in Franconia, forming part of the Upper Trias. From this bed the
term has been extended to the whole formation.

KILLAS. Provincial name for the coarse argillaceous slates in Cornwall.

KIMMERIDGE CLAY. Bituminous clays and marls in the upper part of the English oolites or Jura formation.

KUPFERSCHIEFER. A dark or black coloured, bituminous marly slate, with numerous impressions of fishes and
fucoids, forming the base of the Zechstein. It is one member of the " Permian " of Germany, and is there exten-
sively mined for the disseminated copper ore it contains.

LAVA. General term for rocks that have flowed in a molten state from volcanoes, whatever their nature or composi-
tion.

LEHM. German name for impure clay beds, coloured yellow by the oxyhydrate of iron, and belonging to the most
recent formations.

LEITH A LIMESTONE. Limestone of the Leitha hills near Vienna, shown by the numerous sea-shells, sharks' teeth,
remains of pachyderms and ruminants, to belong to the newer tertiary.

LEPTINITE. Synonyme of granulite.

LETTENKOHLE. Argillaceous brown coal, or lignite beds in the Keuper of Swabia.

LIAS. The lower division of Jura formation in England.

LONDON CLAY. Bluish clays in the vicinity of London, containing many fossils ; belong to the lower tertiary.

LOSS. A yellowish friable sandy clay, common in the Rhine valley, along with some connected beds of sand and
gravel.

LUDLOW ROCKS (Murchison). Highest member of the upper Silurian of England.

MACIGNO. A fine-grained compact sandstone of a dark-blue colour in the interior, and brownish grey when wea-
thered ; very common in the Apennines. It contains no fossils, except some fragments of plants, but belongs chiefly
to the nummulite or lower tertiary formations. It is the common pietra serena or pietraforte of Florence.

MAGNESIAN LIMESTONE. A dolomitic limestone of the Permian formation in the north of England, corresponding
to the German Zechstein.

MAJOLICA. A white compact limestone, in the Apennines and Venetian Alps. In the latter belongs to the Neocomien
or lower chalk.

MELAPHYE Dark-coloured porphyry, with a basis of augite and labradorite, or oligoclase, with crystals of augite
or oligoclase. Described by Von Buch in the Fassa valley, but seems scarcely distinct from augite or greenstone
porphyry.

MI ASCITE. Granular mixture of felspar, mica, and nepheline, found near Miask in the Ilmen Mountains.

MICA SLATE. Laminar mixture of mica and quartz, very abundant in the crystalline group of strata.

MILLSTONE GRIT. Beds of sandstone forming the middle division of the carboniferous strata in England.

MIOCENE. Sir Charles Lyell's name for the middle tertiary strata, with from seventeen to thirty-five per cent of
living species in the organic remains.

MOLASSE. A soft fine-grained grey or green sandstone, common in many parts of Switzerland. With some connected
beds it forms the mollasse group of the Swiss geologists, belonging to the upper tertiary. Professor Bronn and other
German authors use this term as a general designation of the whole tertiary deposits.

MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE. Synonyme for the carboniferous limestone in the lower part of the coal-formation.
Bergkalk of Germans.

MUSCHELKALK. Shell-limestone, the middle member of the Trias, named from the numerous remains of marine
shells it contains. Hitherto scarcely known beyond Germany, the Alps, and some neighbouring parts of France,
but discovered last year by De Verneuil in Spain.

NAGELFLUHE. Coarse conglomerate, containing boulders of almost all the Alpine rocks, in a calcareous basis, form-
ing part of the upper tertiaries in Switzerland. Well seen in the Rigi.

NEOCOMIEN. Lowest member of the cretaceous series. (Atherfield Rocks, Isle of Wight).

NEW RED SANDSTONE. Synonyme for the Trias in England.

NORITE. Granular rock, composed predominantly of felspar, with very little hornblende and titaniferous iron.
Occurs on Hitteroe, and near Bergen in Norway.

NORWICH CRAG. Fluvio-marine formation in the upper tertiary of England.

NUMMULITE ROCKS. Beds of limestone and sandstone, containing very many remains of nummulites, and belong-
ing to the lower part of the tertiary strata.

CENINGEN SLATES. Calcareous slates, very rich in fresh-water fishes, insects, and land-plants, belonging to the
upper tertiaries of Switzerland.

OLD RED SANDSTONE. Synonyme'of the Devonian formation, and especially of the more arenaceous portions of it,
in Hereford, Scotland, and other places.

OOLITE Limestones composed of rounded grains or concretions, common in the Jurassic beds of England, &e. The
term'has been extended to the whole formation, or specially to the portion above the Lias.

OPHITE (Serpent-stone). Used as synonymous with serpentine.

OXFORDIEN. Name for the portion of the Jura formation, corresponding to the Oxford oolite in England.

OXFORD CLAY. Dark-blue clays, containing many ammonites, Gryphasa, and other fossils, with crystals of gypsum.
Member of the Jurassic beds, as near Oxford, &c.

OXFORD OOLITE. Middle portion of English oolites.

PALAGONITE TUFA. Conglomerate of small rounded fragments of palagonite (mineral resembling pitchstone), in
a basis of a similar nature ; found in the Val di Noto in Sicily, interstratified with recent tertiary beds, and also
in Iceland.

PERMIAN ROCKS (Murchison). The highest of the Palseozoic formations, containing the lower red sandstone and
magnesian limestone of England—the Rothliegendes and Zechstein of Germany. (See account of formations
above.)

PHONOLITE, or Clinkstone. Compact greenish-grey trap rock, named from its sharp ringing sound under the ham-
mer. Common near Edinburgh, and in many parts of Germany.

PISOLITE LIMESTONE. Small concretionary limestone, lying above the chalk in many parts of France, and now
usually placed in the lower tertiary group.

PITCHSTONE, {Pechstein, German; Pierre de Poix, French). Compact green, grey, or black rock, with a highly
resinous lustre, common in beds or veins, in Arran, Scotland, the north of Ireland, and near Meissen m Germany.

PLANER. Some beds in chalk formation near Dresden were so named. Corresponding nearly to the Chalk
marl and Lower Chalk of England, they consist of marls and sandy limestones.

PLASTIC CLAY, (Plastischer Tlion, German; Arglle Plastlgue, French). Beds near the bottom of the tertiary series in
the London and Paris basins.

PLEISTOCENE. The most recent tertiary strata or newer Pliocene (Lyell).

PLIOCENE. Upper division of the tertiaries (Lyell), implying that in them a comparative plurality of recent species
occur.

PORPHYRY. Rock characterised by distinct crystals imbedded in a compact basis, the latter generally some variety
of felspar.

PORTLAND OOLITE, PORTLANDIEN. Names of the upper group of the Oolite or Jura formation in England and
the Continent. Derived from the island of Portland, where it occurs.

POSIDONIA SLATE. Beds in the Lias of Swabia, containing many small Posidonomya (Bronii). The same name
has been given to beds full of Posydonomya Becheri, in the upper Devonian on the Rhine.

POSIDONOMYA LIMESTONE. Black limestone, with numerous remains of Posidonomya in Devonshire, the repre-
sentative of the carboniferous limestone.

PROTOGINE. A variety of granite in which the mica is almost replaced by talc; common in Mont Blanc and the
valley of Chamouni in the Alps.

PURBECK BEDS. Slates, marls, and limestones, well seen in the clifis near Purbeck, and belonging to the Wealden
formation.

QUADER, or Quadbr Sandstone. Name given to a sandstone in Saxony. (See account of, in the previous descrip-
tion of the cretaceous formations.)

QUARTZITE, or Quaktz Rock. Rock composed essentially of quartz in a compact crystalline mass, occasionally

with a little felspar or scales of mica. It occurs among the crystalline strata, or as an altered rock where sand-
stone is in contact with igneous rocks.