By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., U.P. 93 
10. Eocene—lower, middle, and upper—London clay, Bag- 
11. Miocene. shot sands, &c. 
12. Pliocene—Crag of Norfolk and Suffolk Diluvial drift, &e. 
13. Post-Pliocene, or recent alluvial gravels, sands, brick 
earth, peat, &c. 
Tertiary Strata. 
It may be asked “ Were all these strata at any time continuous 
and arranged like the coats ofan onion, over the whole globe?” The 
answer is no, nor even over all our island. Many divisions of: the 
series are wanting in many places, and this is what my readers will 
see on consideration would be most probable, because, while there 
have evidently been frequent changes of level in the surface of the 
earth, those parts which at one time were below the sea or lakes 
having been raised into the air, and others which were once dry 
land having sunk below the waters, there was, without doubt, at 
‘all times (and therefore at any one definite period) some land above 
the water level, and of course, no aqueous or stratified deposits 
could during that period be formed there, (except the mere sands 
or gravels of its river-beds). And in these high and dry geo- 
graphical areas, the beds which were at that time in process of 
sedimentary deposition in the adjoining oceans or lakes are neces- 
sarily absent. Moreover, even below the waters in certain situations, 
such as the deltas at the mouths of rivers, &c., beds of shingle, sand, 
gravel, or mud will have been deposited, containing the remains of 
shells or animals, suited to live in such situations, while at the same 
time a different kind of sediment will have been deposited, tranquilly 
perhaps, in the ocean depths at a considerable distance, where very 
different races of shell-fish or animals lived and left their remains. 
These considerations, with others which it would consume too much 
time to dwell upon in this mere sketch, account easily for the fact, 
that the different strata mentioned im the above Table, are not only 
not found uniformly everywhere, but are nowhere all found of uni- 
form appearance and composition, or containing precisely the same 
set of fossils. Still there is great similarity of character, even in 
the structure and composition of the groups of strata which are 
supposed to be of contemporancous origin in all parts of the globe, 
