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Peat. © 
CHAPTER I. 
ON THE NATURE AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE BRITISH STRATA, 
AND THEIR FOSSILS. 
‘© To discover order and intelligence in scenes of apparent 
wildness and confusion is the pleasing task of the geological 
inquirer.”—Dr. PARIs. 
Tue solid materials of which the earth is composed, from 
the surface to the greatest depths within the reach of human 
observation, consist of minerals and fossils. 
MINERALS are inorganic substances formed by natural 
operations, and are the product of chemical or electro- 
chemical action. 
Fossizs are the durable remains of animals and vegetables 
which have been imbedded in the strata by natural causes 
in remote periods, and subsequently more or less altered in 
structure and composition by mechanical and chemical 
agencies. 
The soft and delicate parts of animal and vegetable or- 
ganisms rapidly decompose after death ; but the firmer and 
denser structures, such as the bones and teeth of the former, 
and the woody fibre of the latter, possess considerable dura- 
bility, and under certain conditions will resist decay for 
