ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
—_+-—. 
I. On some Pornts IN ANCIENT PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ILLUS- 
TRATED BY Fossits FROM A PEBBLE-Bep at BUDLEIGH 
SALTERTON, DEVONSHIRE. 
By J. W. Satter, F.G.S., A.L.S. 
[NTRODUCTION.—The contents of a Geological Journal 
form as miscellaneous a series as can well be imagined. In 
its pages all kinds of subjects meet the eye together: the ana- 
lysis of an obscure mineral on one page; the correction of a 
stratigraphical error on another: here is a fresh reading of an old 
text; and there an uninviting catalogue with synonyms. Oc- 
casionally the Journal looks like the note-book of a naturalist ; 
and the affinities of a genus, the migrations of species, and the 
‘ theory of descent with modification,’ are discussed with zealous 
care: and then, again, we get back to the old times and old 
subjects of geological thought ; and Werner and Berzelius, and 
their followers, have it for a season all their own way. There is 
nothing to complain of in all this: it is just what it ought to 
be; for it shows how wide our subject-matter is. ‘The earth and 
all that is therein’ — that is surely wide enough; nor will pen, 
pencil, or graver, till the end of time, have done with it. It 
is not one of the least of the charms of our comprehensive 
science, that every one may add something to its stores. A 
sea-side walk, with a hammer in the pocket, may discover a 
new world by accident; for,as Darwin, Lyell, and Ramsay have 
told us, the unrepresented past times have been far greater than 
those of which we have a geological record, and fragments of 
the missing pages may turn up at any time. 
It is hard to realize this, no doubt. If formations seem to 
be continuous, and are perfectly parallel to one another, it is 
hard to have to question every conclusion as it arises, and 
much more easy to say, ‘there is a complete passage from 
stratum to stratum here.’ Yet every now and then we alight 
upon new geological kingdoms; and still oftener on new pro- 
vinees of old and well-established ones. An obscure, but novel, 
eroup of organic remains comes to light in some well-worked 
district, for which we have as yet no fixed geological place. 
Then the bed containing it is found to have a more extended 
range; it begins to be recognized by a local name; and, after 
undergoing the usual ordeal of doubt and disbelief attached to 
a new-comer, and being variously assigned as a local variation 
of some better-known stratum, it settles at length into its 
