ISi Dr. Fitton's }^otes on the History of English Geology. 



gins, ' be the better able to judge of the make of the earth, 



* and of many phaenomena belonging thereto, when we shall 

 ' have well and duly examined it, as far as human art can pos- 



* sibly reach, beginning J'roin the outside downwards. As for 



* the inward and central parts thereof, I think we shall never 

 ' be able to refute Gilbert's opinion thereof, who will, not with- 

 ' out reason, have it altogether iron. And for this purpose, 



* it were advisable that a soile or mineral map, as I may call it, 

 ' were devised. The same map of England may, for want of a 

 ' better, at present serve the turn. It might be distinguished 

 ' into countries, with the rivers and some of the noted towns 



* put in. The soile might either be coloured, or otherwise distin- 

 ' guished by variety of lines or etchings; hut the great care must 

 ' be, very exactly to note upon the map, where such and such 

 ' soiles are bounded. As for example, in Yorkshire, 1. The 

 ' JVoolds; chaulk, flint and pyrites, &c. 2. Blackmoor; moores, 



* sandstone, &c. 3. Holderness ; boggy, turf, clay, sand, &c. 

 •4. Western mountains; moores, sandstone, coal, ironstone, 

 ' lead-ore, sand, clay, &c. Nottinghamshire ; mostly gravel peb- 

 ' bles, clay, sand-stone, Hall-playster or gypsum, &c. Now 

 ' if it were noted how far this extended, and the limits of each 

 ' soil appeared upon a map, something more might be compre- 



* hendedfrom the whole, and from every part, than I can pos- 

 ' sibly foresee, which would make such a labour well worth the 

 ' pains. For I am of opinioii, such upper soiles, if natural^ 

 ' infallibly produce such under ?ninerals, and, for the most part, 

 ' in such order. But I leave this to the industry of future 



* times.' 



So far, therefore, as the project of a geological map, the 

 credit of originality is clearly due to Dr. Lister; and this may 

 be allowed to atone for his adherence to the absurd hypothesis 

 already mentioned, as to the origin of fossil remains. 



The arrangement of the " soiles" in Yorkshire, in the pas- 

 sage above quoted, accords with the more recent geological 

 divisions of that county: — The JVoolds apparently correspond- 

 ing to the chalk formation; Z?/«c/i-otoo;' to the oolites, sands, 

 and lias of the Eastern moorlands ; Holderness to the deposits 

 above the chalk ; the iVestern mountains to the coal-formation 

 with the subjacent limestones; and the gypsum, &c. of Not- 

 tinghamshire, perhaps to our red-marl and red-sandstone. 

 There is nothing, however, relating to stratification in Lister's 

 paper, nor to the order, or superposition, of the "soiles:" and 

 the only point deserving of notice, in liis ' scheme of sands 

 ' and clays,' which is in general confused and erroneous, is, that 

 in mentioning the sands of Boulogne and Calais, he observes 

 that * although that is not England, yet the sea has but ac- 

 ' cideiitally divided us. For from Dunstable, ex. gr. in Eng- 



