East, 
Ipgat SEcTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES ABOVE THE SEA LEVEL. 
By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., MP. 95 
Kocene Tertiaries upon the surface of its chalk downs, 
and thealluvial beds of its existing river valleys. More- 
over, these strata appear to have suffered comparatively 
| Tertiary. 
little disturbance; the whole series lying, ‘confor- 
mably,’ that is, in parallel beds, one over the other. 
On the other hand, within this limited range the 
structure of our county exhibits a most instructiye 
and interesting variety of sedimentary and fossilifer- 
ous strata, well displayed and easily studied, and 
which, owing to the happy accident of their having 
attracted at an early period the attention of some of 
the first and ablest geologists and paleontologists, 
Cretaceous 
system 
| 
Oolitic system, 
have been recognized throughout Europe as types of 
the different formations to which they belong. In- 
deed, Mr. William Smith, the very founder of the 
science of modern geology, if not a Wiltshire man, 
was long a resident in the county, and engaged as a 
; surveyor in the construction of the canals which tra- 
verse it, at the time of those researches into the 
structure of the country which led him to establish, 
upon the basis of the facts he there observed, that 
theory of the regular arrangement of strata contain- 
ing similar organic remains in an order that is never 
Lias. | 
Trias or 
new red 
sandstone 
Coal 
measures 
re reversed, which forms’ the leading principle of the 
#22 science. (Phillips and Conybeare, Preface, xlv.) 
Bz These facts Mr. Smith represented in a series of 
4%. Geological Maps, published by him between 1815 and 
EF: E 1820, one of which is reprinted to accompany this 
Pee paper, as it is in a convenient form for general use, 
22” and the divisions and nomenclature employed in it, 
4% have been very slightly varied by more recent geolo- 
Ce gists; Smith’s own nomenclature of rocks having, 
25 as before stated, been generally adopted by subse- 
EE quent geologists. Where any material change has 
as occurred, a corresponding correction has been intro- 
of 
duced into the plate. The coloured areas represent- 
