82 The Buried Paleozoic Rocks of Wiltshire. 
period of quiescence, when by a gradual and quiet subsidence with 
occasional periods of rest the paleozoic rocks, the lowest series on 
Section C., were deposited ; the last of them to be deposited being 
the carboniferous or coal measures. The Triassic period, which 
immediately followed, was one of disturbance and change; the 
carboniferous lands were broken up, some parts being converted into 
sea, others into land surfaces; and one of these Triassic land tracts 
seems to have run through Wiltshire, for no Triassic roeks have 
been found either in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, or Somersetshire. 
In the northern part of England large inland salt lakes or seas were 
formed, and over the intervening ridges and watersheds rain and 
rivers cut their way and carved out hills and valleys in the carbon- 
iferous strata. How long this state of things lasted we cannot say, 
but at any rate long enough for the removal of immense quantities 
of rock material. 
Towards the end of this period a fresh set of disturbances began, 
resulting in upheavals and dislocations of the older strata, bending 
them into curves, and forming those great troughs and basins we 
find in the coal measures at the present time, represented by the 
curved appearance of the beds of the lower series of rocks on Section 
C. These movements quite altered the configuration of the older 
rocks at the surface, and especially led to the formation of a large 
continent extending over all the northern, central, and western 
portions of Europe. This was the Triassic continent, and it was 
during this long land or continental period that the older rocks 
assumed the shape and form that is roughly represented in Section 
C. They were wasted and washed away by the continued action 
of the atmosphere, rivers, and other forces of Nature until they 
finally assumed the forms (problematic of course) shown on Section 
C., after which they became the bottom of an ocean and had the 
newer rocks, or upper series, as shown on the same section, deposited 
on them. And this long period of time when these various agencies 
were at work removing the old land surfaces, and re-depositing the 
débris elsewhere explains clearly, I trust, the great break both in 
time and in the continuity of life which is denoted by the un- 
comformability of the strata. 
