1 4 Stra lifted Rocks. 



by the sea-shore, and we shall perhaps find that it is 

 made of strata, which may be horizontal, as in fig. 1, 



FIG. 2. 



or inclined, as in fig. 2, or even bent and contorted into 

 every conceivable variety of form, as in fig. 3. If, 

 as in the diagram, fig. 1, we take a particular bed, 

 No. 1, we may find that it consists of strata of lime- 



FIG. 3. 



stone lying one upon the top of another. Bed No. 2 

 may be of shale, arranged in thin layers, more regu- 

 larly than in No. 1. No. 3 may consist of pebbly 

 materials, arranged in ruder layers, for, the material 

 being coarse, the bedding may be irregular, or even 

 quite indistinct. Then in No. 4, the next and highest 

 deposit, we may have a mass of sandstone, arranged in 

 definite beds. The whole of these various strata in the 

 aggregate form one cliff. Eocks, more or less of these 

 kinds, compose the bulk of the strata of the British 

 Islands ; and it must be remembered that these were 

 originally loose stratified sediments, piled on each other 

 often to enormous thicknesses, and subsequently con- 

 solidated by pressure and chemical actioja. In some 



