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The same explanation would apply to the Oolitic beds found 
in the Carboniferous Limestone, which had been formed by the 
waste of the Coral beds in the Carboniferous seas. But the 
Oolitic grains of the Carboniferous Oolites had often a small 
foraminiferous shell as a nucleus, instead of the particles found 
in the Jurassic Oolites; but.in both cases the process of production 
was the same; the granules had been rolled along a shore and 
cemented into a rock by a calcareous cement, just as Oolitic beds 
are now in course of formation along the shores of the Coral 
reefs of our own day. There was only one true method to 
interpret nature, and that was to watch how she proceeded in 
any of her operations, and thus, having learned her modus 
operandi, to explain the unknown by the known. 
I have ever felt that any opinion expressed by Dr Wright 
upon the question of the Oolites, which he had so long and 
carefully studied, is entitled to the fullest consideration, and 
that those who differ from him should carefully weigh his argu- 
ments before adopting a contrary conclusion. 
The basement beds which rest upon the sands, and up to a 
point just below the Coral bed, are of so different a character to 
those above them, as has been well observed by Mr Witchell, 
that I feel constrained not to accept the view of the Doctor, that 
they are derived from an Oolitic reef, or fringe. The Upper 
beds I believe are in the main the detritus of a coralliferous 
deposit, and I am so far in accord with him. 
The basement beds of Crickley and Birdlip give me the 
impression of having been derived from some limestone form- 
ation, and also that part of the material of which they are 
composed came from beds containing iron, as they are of a 
ferruginous character. 
Now, let us draw upon our imagination a little, and picture 
to ourselves the condition of the area we have under consideration 
when the deposition of the Lias had ceased. That formation 
would be sunk beneath the sea, and probably the only land then 
visible would be the Malverns, May Hill, the Forest of Dean, and 
the mountains of Herefordshire and Wales. The Lias would be 
on the flank of the Malverns, May Hill and the Forest, and there 
