254 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



the Mesozoic rocks of England into order, but had furnished 

 a means of dealing in like fashion with the rocks of 

 the same age in other countries, there seemed no reason 

 why the palseontological succession, found to distinguish 

 the greywacke in England and Wales, should not be 

 equally serviceable among the Transition rocks of Europe 

 and even of America. Murchison had thus added a 

 series of new and earlier chapters to the geological history 

 of the globe. 



The various brief communications to the Geological 

 Society, after the first discoveries in 1831, though 

 they had made geologists familiar with the main results 

 of Murchison's work, only increased their desire to know 

 the detailed observations on which it was founded, and 

 more particularly to have complete information as to the 

 assemblages of organic remains which he had discovered. 

 Previous collections from the Transition rocks were 

 generally of little service for stratigraphical purposes, 

 because those of widely separate horizons had all 

 been mixed together. But Murchison's specimens had 

 been carefully gathered, with the view of sustaining his 

 classification, and for the purpose of forming a basis of 

 comparison between the Transition rocks of Britain and 

 those of other countries. Early in the course of his 

 wanderings along the Welsh border, he had been urged to 

 prepare a full and more generally accessible account of 

 his labours than was offered in the publications of a 

 learned Society. Accordingly, adding this task to his 

 other engagements, he toiled at the making of a big book, 

 until at last, towards the end of the year 1838, that is, 

 about seven years from the time when he broke ground 



