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CHAPTER II. 
SYNOPSIS OF THE BRITISH STRATA. 
‘‘ Hard lines are admissible in Science, whose object is not to 
imitate Nature, but to interpret her works.”—GREENOUGH. 
Tue classification of the stratified rocks is based on three 
principal characters ; namely, 1, the mineral structure ; 2, 
the order of superposition ; and 3, the nature of the organic 
remains ; the following synopsis has been drawn up in ac- 
cordance with these principles.* 
CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE BRITISH 
FORMATIONS. 
COMMENCING WITH THE UPPERMOST OR NEWEST DEPOSITS. 
FAodern or Human Epoch. 
AxtuviaL Deposits : remains of Man and existing species 
of mammalia. 
Post-Bliorene, 
Drirt; Boulder clay ; Till; &c. comprising the super- 
ficial irregular accumulations of transported materials, con- 
sisting of gravel, boulders, sand, clay, &c. 
Observations.—These beds have been formed by a variety of causes ; 
by land-floods and inundations, by irruptions of the sea, and by the 
* See “ Wonders of Geology,” vol. i. pp. 200—207, for a Synoptical 
Table of the principal rocks. 
