Succession of Formations. 25 



or dip under beds of blue limestone and clay, called 

 Lower Lias (3), which are seen to dip under the Marl- 

 stone or Middle Lias (4), overlaid by the 

 Upper Lias (5), on which rests the Inferior 

 Oolite sand and limestone (6), followed by the 

 Fuller's Earth clay (7). Next comes a series 

 of strata (8), which for present purposes I 

 have massed together, and which are known 

 when they are all present as Great Oolite, 

 Forest Marble, and Cornbrash. These dip 

 under the Oxford Clay (9), which dips under 

 a limestone called the Coral Eag (10), and 

 still going eastward this dips beneath the 

 Kimeridge Clay (11), which, in its turn, 

 passes under the Cretaceous Series of this 

 district, consisting of Gault (12), Upper 

 Greensand (13), and Chalk (14) which in a 

 bold escarpment overlooks the plain of 

 Kimeridge Clay. 1 



Here, then, we see a marked succession 

 of strata of different kinds, or having dif- 

 ferent lithologiccd characters, formed, that 

 is to say, of marls, clays, sands, and lime- 

 stones, succeeding and alternating with each 

 other. They are all sediments originally 

 deposited in the sea, (if we except the New 

 Red Marl, which was deposited in a Salt 

 lake), for the forms of old life found in & 

 them prove this. Some are only forty or 

 fifty feet thick, some are more than five or 

 six hundred feet in thickness. 



If we leave the coast cliffs and turn to the middle of 



J The Portland beds being only occasionally present, are in this 

 diagram purposely omitted, and this does not affect the general 



