

MINERALOGY OP THE SOUTH OP 



be a deposite from the ocean. But we have only to read 

 Cuvier and Brogniart's description of this set of rockg 

 to be convinced, that all the strata and beds of which it is 

 composed, from the low marl resting on the limestone to 

 that immediately under the marine sandstone, have those 

 mutual relations and agreements observable in every 

 well characterized formation, thus proving that all of 

 them have been formed by the same process and from the 

 same fluid. 



But in most of these fresh and salt water formations 

 *we find an intermixture of both classes of remains, the 

 fresh water and salt water, a fact which shows the insuf- 

 ficiency of the distinctions attempted to be established. 

 To Cuvier and Brongniart we are indebted for much va- 

 luable information in their description of the country 

 around Paris, but we must protest against the use they 

 have made of fossil organic remains in their geognostical 

 descriptions and investigations. They have too often 

 lost sight of the mineralogical relations of the rocks, and 

 wish to fix the attention of naturalists principally on the 

 organic remains. Thus, in some degree, separating what 

 must always be conjoined when we wish to describe 

 rocks and characterize formations. 



Several of these new flcetz formations, as already men- 

 tioned, have been discovered in other parts of Europe ; 

 and we may now add, that lately a series of rocks of the 

 same general nature has been observed resting on the 

 chalk formation in the south of England. The newer for- 

 mations in this island were first pointed out, and described 

 by Mr. Webster, in a valuable Memoir in the second 

 volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society. 

 That gentleman is of opinion, that two basins of chalk, 

 filled with the newer formations, occur in the southern 



