GS GLOSSARY. 



Spain, and other countries. Etyni., dun or chine is an Anglo- 

 Saxon word for hill. 



EARTH'S CRUST. Such superficial parts of our planet as are acces- 

 sible to human observation, 



ELYTRA. The wing-sheaths, or upper crustaceous membranes, which 

 form the superior wings in the tribe of beetles, being crustaceous 

 appendages which cover the body and protect the true mem- 

 branous wing. Etym., eXvrpor, elytron, a sheath. 



EOCENE. See explanation of this word, vol. iii. p. 55. 



ESCARPMENT, the abrupt face of a ridge of high land. Etym., cscar- 

 pcr, French, to cut steep. 



ESTUARIES. Inlets of the land, which are entered both by rivers and 

 the tides of the sea. Thus we have the estuaries of the Thames, 

 Severn, Tay, &c. Etym. JEstus, the tide. 



FALUNS. A provincial name for some tertiary strata abounding in 

 shells in Touraine, which resemble in lithological characters 

 the ' crag' of Norfolk and Suffolk. 



FAULT, in the language of miners, is the sudden interruption of the 

 continuity of strata in the same plane, accompanied by a crack 

 or fissure varying in width from a mere line to several feet, 

 which is generally filled with broken stone, clay, &c., and such 

 a displacement that the separated portions of the once con- 

 tinuous strata occupy different levels. 



No. 92. The strata , b, c, &c., 

 must at one time have 

 been continuous, but a 

 fracture having taken 

 place at the fault F, 

 c either by the upheaving 

 of the portion A, or the 

 J* sinking of the portion B, 



the strata were so displaced, that the bed a in B is many 

 feet lower than the same bed a in the portion A. 

 FAUNA. The various kinds of animals peculiar to a country consti- 

 tute its FAUNA, as the various kinds of plants constitute its 

 FLORA. The term is derived from the FAUNI, or rural deities in 

 Ivoman Mythology. 



Fr.LSPAR. A simple mineral, which constitutes the chief material of 

 many of the unstratified or igneous rocks. The white angular 

 portions in granite arc felspar. Jt is originally a German 

 miners' term. Etym., fcld, field, and spalh, a very old jnincra- 



