162 . III. DIST. CHAR. Soil. 



c. 132. THE MODERN SEC. s. (S. secund. recen- 

 tia) contain few petrifactions, but abound, for the 

 most part, in conservata The vegetal are frequently 

 the remains of trees, as their wood, leaves, &c. the 

 animal are often the bones of unknown quadrupeds ; 

 when shells and other marine remains, they are ge- 

 nerally such as belong to the neighbouring seas. 

 They mostly repose on the less ancient soils. 



They are stratified, but seldom regularly. 



Obs. The soils of this order rarely appear in 

 hills, but generally form extended plains and low 

 lands, skirted by tracts of more ancient, mountain 

 strata. 



The strata belonging to these soils are usually of 

 brown coal, clay, sand, gravel, marl, bituminous 

 wood, and its varieties; sometimes gypsum, salt 

 rock, and ironstone ; more rarely chalk and sand- 

 stone. 



They are either marigenous or alluvial 



The marigenous exhibit conservata of sea shells, 

 bones of fish, &c. the strata commonly sand, and 

 marl the alluvial hold vegetal conservata, com- 

 monly in argillaceous beds ; or the bones of mamma- 

 lia, which are deposited in all the substances just 

 mentioned, and sometimes in gypsum. 



Modern soils are principally distinguished from 

 the less ancient by their holding occasionally the 

 bones of quadrupeds embodied in their strata ; and 

 by the materials of these strata being, generally, in a 



