102 



CHAPTER XIX. 



RECAPITULATION OF THE GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE 

 STRATIFIED FORMATIONS OF ENGLAND. 



THE geology of England and Wales is much more 

 comprehensive than that of Scotland, in so far that it 

 contains many more formations, and its features there- 

 fore are more various. England is the very Paradise 

 of geologists, for it may be said to be in itself an 

 epitome of the geology of almost the whole of Europe, 

 and much of Asia and America. Very few European 

 geological formations are altogether absent in Eng- 

 land. On the Continent, however, some have a larger 

 importance than in England, being more truly oceanic 

 deposits in some cases, and more thoroughly developed 

 lacustrine or terrestrial deposits in others. In some 

 countries larger than England the whole surface is 

 occupied by one or two formations, but in England 

 nearly all the formations shown in the column (p. 30) 

 are more or less developed. Those of Silurian age 

 lie chiefly in England, in Cumberland and Westmore- 

 land, and in the west, in Wales (fig. 57, p. 304). 

 Above them lie the Old Red Sandstone and Devonian 

 rocks, occupying large areas in Herefordshire, Wor- 

 cestershire, South Wales, and in Devonshire and Corn- 

 wall. Above the Old Red Sandstone come the 

 Carboniferous strata, which form large tracts of 

 Devonshire, Somerset, and part of Gloucestershire, 



