316 Britain's Heritage of Science 



as fully as they might of these geological classics, because 

 hardly any of the fossils retain the name originally assigned 

 to them. Names, instead of being regarded as a means of 

 recalling the forms referred to, have become a means of 

 forcing on the world new theories of classification which have 

 to be changed again when later authors are impressed by 

 the value of other similarities or differences. 



In the working of coal mines and quarrying of limestones 

 of the Carboniferous formation opportunities are offered to 

 the hammers of the palaeontologists and stratigraphists to 

 follow the exposed rocks, and so we find the same story 

 repeated. Witham, Binney and Williamson collected the fish 

 and the plants from the coal measures near Manchester; 

 and Lindley and Hutton devoted their attention to the study 

 of the vegetable remains. 



At the close of the Carboniferous period there again 

 ensued a period of local destruction of older beds, followed 

 by the deposition of fresh rocks of the New Red Sand- 

 stone. Vast movements of continental masses were taking 

 place and hydrographical areas became still more limited 

 in extent and consequently more varied in their results. So 

 much, however, did they present a general uniformity 

 in the character of the sequence and in their prevailing 

 colour that these basement beds of this new system, 

 the so-called Poikilitic or Variegated series of Phillips, came 

 to be known as the New Red Sandstone. The lower part 

 gave rise to much controversy, as it was by some con- 

 sidered the equivalent of the Permian of Russia, and by 

 some bracketed with the underlying Carboniferous rocks. 

 Passing by these details of classification we find that the 

 study and nomenclature of these deposits in parts of England 

 were determined by the home of Charles Moore (1815-1881), 

 near Gloucester and Dr. E. P. Wright (1834-1910), at 

 Cheltenham. W. H. Fitton and G. A. Mantell in the South 

 of England elucidated the sequence of relations of the Jurassic 

 and Cretaceous beds and utilized their local opportunities of 

 adding to our geological knowledge of these formations and 

 their fossils. 



Thus we see that biographical notices of the early geo- 

 logists carry us to their homes round which the recreations of 



