SIR RODERICK J. MURCHISON. 193 



recognized, it was seen that the strata were divisible 

 into three great groups characterized by certain per- 

 sistent forms of animal and vegetable life, inlo Primary 

 or Palaeozoic, Secondary or Mesozoic, and Tertiary or 

 Ivainozoic. The fauna and flora of the first being 

 much less like the productions now on the earth than 

 the second, and each being defined from the other 

 by great physical breaks, during which continents 

 had been submerged, and the depths of the sea had 

 become dry land. 



It thus happened that when Murchison first applied 

 himself to the study of geology as the science of his 

 life, the Tertiary rocks were known to occupy the 

 eastern parts of England as far as the chalk ; the 

 Secondary rocks extended over the whole area from the 

 chalk downs westward to the line of the coal-measures; 

 while the Primary swept in a broad band obliquely 

 through England and into Wales, being represented by 

 the coal-measures and " Old Eed Sandstone." Below 

 these lay a geological terra incognita, embracing the 

 hilly districts of Wales and Cumberland and the High- 

 lands of Scotland, and termed, for want of a better 

 name, from its grey colour, Graywacke. It is obvious 

 that in this direction Murchison might expect greater 

 success than in any other, for the Tertiary strata 

 required a knowledge of the living forms which he did 

 not possess, and the Secondary were already explored. 



"Engaged in the fascinating pursuit of the new 

 science were heroes as noble and knightly as the 

 fellowship of Arthur's Table Pound. There was the 

 eloquent, active, and humorous Buckland, fresh from 



o 



