637 



the very nature of several of these indicates very remarkably the 

 European character which our geology has assumed, since they have 

 for their object the identification of some members of the recognised 

 series of England, and of France, or Germany. Thus Mr. Mur- 

 chison and Mr. Strickland have attempted to show, by the evidence of 

 organic fossils, now for the first time adduced on this point, that the 

 red saliferous marls of Gloucester, Worcester, and Warwick shires, 

 with an included bed of sandstone, represent the keuper or marnes Iri- 

 shes of Germany; and that the underlying sandstone of Ombersly, 

 Bromsgrove, and Warwick is part of the hunter sandstein or gres 

 bigarre of foreign geologists. They are thus led to conclude that 

 though the muschelkalk, which intervenes between these formations in 

 Germany, is absent in the new red system of England, and of a large 

 part of France, its other members may be identified over the whole 

 of the north of Europe. 



Proceeding from the new red to the oolite system, we have a me- 

 moir from Mr. Pratt containing an examination of the geological cha- 

 racter of the coast of Normandy, which necessarily implies a compari- 

 son of this series of rocks with those of England. The identification 

 is found to be complete, as had already been believed ; but Mr. Pratt 

 has made some alteration in the received doctrines on this subject; for 

 instance, the Caen stone, which is usually considered to represent the 

 great oolite, he finds to resemble in its fossils the inferior oolite. 



Ascending still, we have to notice Mr. Clarke's elaborate geological 

 survey of Suffolk, which, of course, refers entirely to the chalk and 

 overlying beds. With regard to the crag of this district, I may re- 

 mark that M. Desnoyers, in a communication made to the Geological 

 Society of France, has endeavoured to identify this formation with 

 the Faluns of the Touraine. M. Deshayes had referred the latter 

 to the Miocene, and the crag to the Pliocene formations of Mr. Lyell. 

 The point is one of great interest, since it involves the question of 

 the value and right mode of application of the test of the relative 

 number of recent species, on which Mr. Lyell's classificati:n, or at 

 least his nomenclature, is founded. I conceive that in a matter of 

 arrangement any arbitrary numerical character must lead to viola- 

 tions of nature's classifications ; and can only be considered as an ar- 

 tificial method, to be used provisionally till some more genuine prin- 

 ciple of order is discovered. 



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