SECTION C— GEOLOGY. 



THE PALEOZOIC MOUNTAIN SYSTEMS 

 OF EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



ADDRESS BY 



E. B. BAILEY, M.C., L^g.d'Hon. 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Foreword : Geological time is so long that non-technical readers cannot hope to 



carry in their heads even the main elements of its chronology. The following 

 memorandum is supplied for reference in connection with the present address. 



The major time divisions are of very unequal value. They run as follows, 

 beginning with the oldest: 



Precimbriai: Primxry or Palaeozoic; Secondary or Mesozoic ; Tertiary or 

 Cainozoic ; Quaternary, in which we find ourselves living. 



Palseozoic time is divided, beginning with the oldest, into: Cambrian; Ordo- 

 vician ; Silurian; Devonian (including Old Red Sandstone); Carboniferous; Permian. 



Ordovician time is subdivided, beginning with the oldest, into : Arenig ; 

 Llandeilo : Caradoc (including Ashgill). 



Silurian time is subdivided, beginning with the oldest, into: Llandovery; 

 Tarannon ; Wenlock ; LuQow; Downtotiian. 



Devonian time is subdivided, beginning with the oldest, into: Lower; Middle; 

 Upper Devonian. 



Carboniferous time is subdivided, beginning with the oldest, into: Carboniferous 

 Limestone: Millstone Grit : Coal Measures. 



In wliat may be called the Bertrand time-classification of folded mountain 

 sj'stems : 



Caledonian includes all folded mountains developed in early Palaeozoic times, 

 not later than Devonian. The name is derived from Scotland. 



Uercynian in "ludes all foMe I raouatai'is developed in later Palaeozoic ti-nes, that 

 is Carboniferous, extending into Permian. The name is derived from the Harz in 

 Germany. 



Alpine includes all folded mountains developed in Mesozoic and Tertiary times. 

 The name is derived from the Swiss Alps. 



G'^OLOGiSTS attach a deeper and more lasting significance to mountains 

 than do geographers. They can dispense with such attributes as mere 

 height and form, and can recognise as geological realities mountains that 

 no "longer show above the general surface of the ground. There are 

 extensive districts in Belgium and France where the mountains of 

 yesterday peer up at us through the valley bottoms of to-day ; or where 

 these same mountains have been visited only by miners who have sunk 

 shafts to them, in search of coal, through ovcrlj-ing formations. 



The mountains to which I am directing your attention are folded 

 mountains, a product of lateral compression ; and it is the contorted 

 and ruptured condition of their component strata which stamps them 

 with their enduring character. We find this character in the relatively 



