NATURAL HISTORY. 
to overcome the difficulty—and here we cannot but 
call to mind with esteem and regret the late Mr. 
Hatherleigh, to whose spirited exertions the neigh- 
bourhood, on this and many other accounts, are so 
much indebted. 
As the opinion that dlack coal, (provincially sea 
coal) may yet be discovered in ihe neighbourhood, 
does not appear to be quite absolete, we shall 
conclude this general sketch with a brief statement 
of the reasons that make this.extremely improbable 
within the limits of the district we are describing. 
From the great number of geological facts that have 
now been collected and generalized, certain de- 
ductions have been drawn relative to the order of 
superposition of the differeut rock strata, and of the 
organized fessil remains that are preserved in them, 
that appear to rest ona firm basis; thus the primi- 
tive rocks contain no fossil remains—the transition 
formations occasionally contain Zoophytes, Mol- 
lusca, and a few Crustacea—these are the earliest 
organic forms that occur, and are met with in the 
transition lime-stone of the district ; our red sand 
stone rests immediately on these without any other 
interposed strata, so that whether we consider it as 
being an older, or more recent, member of the se- 
condary class, the result in boring thro’ it would be 
the same, viz. we should arrive at the transition 
rocks, which are of more ancient origin than those 
containing the coal measures (which are the minera- 
lized fossil remains of the earliest monecotyledonous 
vegetation ; the same may be observed of the green 
