170 Mr. Varey's Geological Infer evceu 



pendent," by numerous modern writers, because the cvirlcncc* 

 seem very conclusive, that this formation was uniformly spic.iii 

 over the Limestone, as that also was over the .Slate, before the 

 first stupendous denudotions took place, by which large patches 

 of these strata were entirely removed, and their fractured edges 

 exposed on all sides. 



vSome of my Friends are lately inclined to think, that this stale 

 of external violence on the older strata, terminated by the de- 

 position, locallv, of va-^t masses of highly mechanically ro/a/ded 

 Quartz and other pebbles ; but I nuist see clear evidence, of such 

 Gravel being now found xuider any strata, those of Red Marl at 

 the least, before I can assent to this position, or cease to assign a 

 much later period, to uU the Gravel and alluvial matters that 

 ve are ac(piainted with. 



The second grand division or period of the British stratiBca- 

 tion, seems to have conniienccd with the deposition of the Red 

 Ivlarl, and its various locally imljcddcd Svibstances*, in an iin- 

 conjormahle manner on all the dcnudatcd edges of the older 

 strata, but con formally on all their naked planes ; and as these 

 last greatly preponderated in extent or surface, it has happened, 

 that this general unconformablcness, has not yet been universally 

 known and assented to i)y British observers. 



Conformably with the top of this vast series of Red INIarlfj 

 and its imbedded soft red Gritstones, &;c. are foimd de|)osited, the 

 vast series of strata of the east and south-east of England and tlie 

 adjacent parts of the Continent J, as 1 iirst, I believe, enumerated 

 them, in print, in my Derby. Report, page 1 11 to page 1 1(5, but 

 in the reverse order to that in which we are now convidering 

 them: and on which enumeration of the upper British Series, it 

 seems now proper to remark, that the " natural division" of the 

 whole of tliose mentioned, will seem made with more propriety, 

 at the ^bottom, rather than the top of the Red Marl Scries. I 

 would also here recall to mind, the correction which I made at 



"• * Tlie Basaltic limnniocks, so often found locilly covering the CoiiU 

 irieasures, seem referable to tlic bottom of this stratum, and are perhaps 

 uiicouforniable in some instances?. 



f 'i'iie irrei;uhu' and wcdL'e-likc stratification, so common in the Grit-? 

 Stones of this stiatum, sufficiently explains how the "^tratilication, begun on 

 an uneven floor, was reduced above, to the very reguhu" and horizontal beds, 

 which I have mentiou'd in my [{eport, vol. i. pp. 117 and 174, and v\hlclj 

 I have since ali.iost everywhere observed in this Marl. 



X We have been made acfjuainted with tiic identity of the upper part af 

 the scries of Strata, in thcbe diil'cient Countiies, by investi^iations com- 

 menced abroad, siurc Mr. .Smith's investigation and Maps bad been ma- 

 nured, nearly to their present state (as I have explained in your xxxvtb 

 volume, pa^e 113), and had been made known to sores of intelligent per- 

 sons, although to the present time, Ap has publistied nothing on the -lubjcct. 



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