PEEFACE 



IN preparing a new edition of this volume I have not only 

 revised and partly rewritten the descriptions of the British 

 strata, but have enlarged the scope of the work by giving 

 more complete accounts of the continental representatives of 

 each system or series of rocks. I have, however, strictly 

 confined myself to the geology of Europe, because any 

 adequate account of Asiatic or American strata, with their 

 fossil contents, would have made the volume too bulky. For 

 such further information the student must consult a larger 

 treatise, such as Sir A. Geikie's Text-book of Geology or de 

 Lapparent's Traitt de Gtologie. 



It has often been said that the British Isles present us 

 with an epitome of the geology of Europe ; but though it is 

 true that we possess representatives of nearly all the great 

 series of strata which form the geological record, yet some of 

 them are missing, such as the Stephanian Series, the Middle 

 Trias (Muschelkalk, etc.), and the Miocene (except for the 

 Bovey Beds), while others consist of freshwater deposits 

 instead of the more universal marine fades. Consequently, 

 a student who is only acquainted with the British rocks is 

 ignorant of many* important formations and fossils, and is apt 

 to take limited and incomplete views of the atratigraphical 

 systems and their problems. 



In thinking it desirable to supply such supplementary 



