270 Mr. Farcy's Statement of Geological Facts 



Marl, one of the three, probably, which are mentioned in 

 my reply to Dr. R.'s Letter, p. 442, of your 37lh volume, 

 and closely allied in its properties, though not the same, 

 which I have somewhat explored and treated on in my 

 Derbyshire Report, vol. i. p. 146, and in your present vo- 

 lume, p. 28. 



Dr-. R. when describing the great Bnsalt stratum in vonr 

 33rd volume, pages 105, il3, and 201, and in Mr. D.'s 

 Appen. p. 62, 80, &c. speaks of " the Iktle systems, by the 

 aggregate of which our coast is formed ; nature having 

 changed her mafcrials, or their disposition, or both, every 

 two or ihree miles :" " Nature in the formation of her ar- 

 /■angements has never acted upon an extensive scale in our 

 Ba>ialtic area," &c. " Whenever there is a change of ma- 

 terials, by ihe introduction of a new system, the lines of 

 dcniarkation (are) always distinct and wfll defined ; yet, the 

 different materials pass into each other without interrupting 

 the solidity and continuity of the whole mass." " We 

 (addressing Mr. Davy) studiously sought for the points 

 where nature had made any change in her materials, or 

 their arrangement, hoping that at the junctions of these 

 little systems we should find," &c. : and which are the 

 kind of passages, to which I alluded, vol. xxxiii, p. 257, as 

 not perfee.tlv understanding them two years ago, but which 

 1 think that 1 now do, as applied by Dr. R. to the ano- 

 malies or occasional changes in the substance, or the struc- 

 ture, or the form, &c. of what he still considers as the same 

 stratum of Basalt, notwithstanding such changes. Jn the 

 mention which Dr. R. has since made of the matters below 

 white Limestone (except speaking of schist in several 

 places), Apj). pages 21, 22, 47, &c. he says, they compose 

 *' a district in uhich the component fossils are much di- 

 versified," having " more diversified materials and more 

 diminutive and irregular arrangements," and again, he 

 speaks of the valley between Cave-hill and Carmoney be- 

 ing excavated through the basaltic and calcareous strata, 

 " and the more irregular materials upon which thev rested," 

 &c. From all which 1 conceive, that Dr. R. will find no 

 great difficulty in understanding, and perhaps in admitting 

 the statements in my Derbyshire Report, vol. i. p. 147 to 

 156, 280, &c. as to the anomalous, accidental, or chance 

 Beds and nodular and huge anomalous Concretions or 

 rudely crystallized Masses in the Red Marl strata, in and 

 near to that Co-mty,and elsev\here; whatever he may think 

 of my present attempt, to refer the very various and dis- 

 similar substances in the lower part of his series (to which 



he 



