158 . Ill, DIST. CHAR. Soil 



ancient and ancient, 2. less ancient, 3. modern, and 

 4. very modern soils. 



a. 130. THE MOST ANCIENT, AND ANCIENT, SEC.S. 

 (S. secund. vetustissima et vetusta) contain the 

 reliquia of marine animals only .: chiefly of shells, 

 corals, and other bodies of the vermis class, whose 

 originals, in most instances, are not now known to 

 exist f. They always immediately follow or re- 

 pose on primary soils. 



They are sometimes, but not always, stratified 

 The lowermost strata contain but few petrifac- 

 tions f f These form soils that may be considered 



t The originals of the anomittz, ammonitte, entrochitce, &c. 

 found in these soils, have not been discovered in the recent state. 



-f f One of the characteristic distinctions of transition rocks, ac- 

 cording to the Wernerian theory, is their containing but few petri- 

 factions and those always marine, and chiefly of the vermis class : 

 but to what order are those strata to be referred, that have every 

 character of transition rocks except their paucity of extraneous 

 fossils? Such are the limestone strata of Derbyshire, which 

 abound in petrifactions, and which few geologists would rank as 

 transition rocks, though they evidently do not belong to what 

 Werner calls the " floetz formations.'' Hence, it appears more 

 eligible, at least in the present study, to consider the comparative 

 ages of soils to be marked, in the first instance, rather by the na- 

 ture, than the quantity of their organic contents and hence, we 

 consider those rocks that have a few marine petrifactions, and 

 those that abound in them (their other characters being similar) to 

 form but divisions of the same order. 



