LECT. vi History of Geological Nomenclature 243 



Transition series, or the Floetz or the Independent Coal- 

 formation, as the case might be, he considered that all 

 that was really essential had been ascertained, and his 

 interest in the matter came practically to an end. 



But the extraordinary awakening which resulted from 

 the labours of Cuvier, Brongniart and William Smith, 

 invested the strata with a new meaning. As strati- 

 graphical investigations multiplied, the artificiality and 

 inadequacy of the Wernerian arrangement became every 

 day more apparent. Even more serious than the attacks 

 of the Vulcanists, and the disclosure of eruptive granites 

 and porphyries among the Transition rocks, were the dis- 

 coveries made among the fossiliferous stratified formations. 

 It was no longer possible to crowd and crush these rocks 

 within the narrow limits of the Wernerian system, even 

 in its most modified and improved form. The necessity 

 for expansion and for adopting a perfectly natural nomen- 

 clature and classification, based upon the actually observed 

 facts, as these were successively ascertained, made itself 

 felt especially in England and in France. Hence arose 

 the curiously mongrel terminology which is now in use. 

 Certain formations were named from some prominent 

 mineral in them, such as Carboniferous. Others were 

 discriminated by some conspicuous variety of rock, like 

 the Cretaceous series. Some took their names from a 

 characteristic structure, like Oolitic, others from their 

 relative position in the whole series, as in the case of 

 Old Eed Sandstone and New Eed Sandstone. Certain 

 terms betrayed the country of their origin, as did William 

 Smith's English provincial names, like Gault, Kellaways 

 rock, and Lias. 



