16 EEPOKT — 1880. 



deposited under estnarine conditions, and sometimes in lagoons or in lakes ; 

 while nnmerous beds of coal formed by the life and death of land plants, 

 each underlaid by the soil on which the plants grew, evince the constant 

 recurrence of terrestrial conditions. The same kind of phenomena are 

 characteristic of the Coal-measures all through ISTorth America, and in 

 every country on the continent of Europe, from France and Spain on the 

 west, to Russia in the east, and the same is the case in China and in other 

 areas. 



In Scotland, according to Prof. Judd, fresh- water conditions occur 

 more or less all through the Jurassic series, from the Lias to the Upper 

 Oolites. In England, fresh-water strata, with thin beds of coal, are found 

 in the Inferior Oolite of Yorkshire, and in the middle of England and 

 elsewhere in the Great Oolite. The Purbeck and Wealden strata, which, 

 in a sense, fill the interval between the Jurassic and Cretaceous series, are 

 almost entirely formed of fresh-water strata, with occasional thin marine 

 interstratifications. By some the Wealden beds are considered to have 

 been formed in and near the estuary of a great river, while others, with 

 as good a show of reason, believe them to have been deposited in a large 

 lake subject to the occasional influx of the sea. 



In the eastern part of South Eussia the Lias consists chiefly of fresh, 

 water strata, as stated by Neumayr. 



The Godwana rocks of Central India range from Upper Palasozoic 

 times well into the Jurassic strata, and there all these formations are of 

 fresh- water origin. Fresh- water beds with shells are also interstratified 

 with the Deccan traps of Cretaceous and Tertiary (Eocene) age, while 

 2,000 feet of fresh-water sands overlie them. 



In South-western Sweden, as stated by Mr. Bauerman, 'the three 

 coal-fields of Hoganas, Stabbarp, and Rodinge, lie in the uppermost 

 Triassic or Rhsetic series.' In Africa, the Karoo beds, which it is surmised 

 may be of the age of the New Red Sandstone, contain beds of coal. In 

 North America, certain fresh-water strata, with beds of lignite, apparently 

 belong to the Cretaceous and Eocene epochs, and in the north of Spain 

 and south of France, there are fresh-water lacustrine formations in the 

 highest Cretaceous strata. 



In England the lower and upper Eocene strata are chiefly of fi-esh- 

 water origin, and the same is the case in France and other parts of the 

 Contiuent. Certain fresh-water formations in Central Spain extend from 

 the Eocene to the upper Miocene strata. 



There is only one small patch of Miocene beds in England, at Bovey 

 Tracey, near Dartmoor, formed of fresh- water deposits with interstratified 

 beds of lignite or Miocene coal. On the continent of Europe, Miocene 

 strata occupy immense independent areas, extending from France and 

 Spain to the Black Sea. In places too numerous to name, they contain 

 beds of ' brown coal,' as lignite is sometimes called. These coal-beds 

 are often of great thickness and solidity. In one of the pits which I 

 descended near Teplitz, in Bohemia, the coal, which lies in a true basin, 



