Mr. Webster on the Strata lyhig over the Chalk. 241 



great attention paid to agriculture in our country, have much di- 

 minished the quantity of morasses and ancient depositions of this 

 kind ; and the great superiority of coal as a fuel, and which gives us 

 a natural advantage over other nations, has rendered turf of little 

 value. 



In Lincolnshire however th^ quantity of marsh land is prodigious ; 

 and the well known and accurately described submarine forest, yet 

 to be seen in that county, has already excited the attention of some 

 of our naturalists. 



The subject of \\vq Fossil organic remains^ found in the gravel, has 

 been already so ably treated by a naturalist eminently qualified to 

 do it justice, that I should have left the subject in better hands, did 

 it not form so essential a part of an account of our upper strata, that 

 to have omitted it entirely would have rendered some of the follow- 

 ing observations less intelligible. 



From the view which I have taken of the subject, it will be seen 

 that I consider th-e fossil shells found in the gravel, as well as the 

 gravel itself, as exhibiting proofs of the detritus or ruin of ancient 

 strata. Hence specimens of all those fossils which belonged to the 

 strata over the chalk may be expected to be found in it. 



I am aware that the perfect state in which many of these fossil 

 shells yet remain, has been considered as a proof that they have 

 never suffered a removal, but that they have lived and died upon 

 the spots where they now are. 



That this is the case with some of the upper beds containing fossil 

 shells, as the thin clay strata of Woolwich, Plumstead, &c. and per- 

 haps of other places with which I am not acquainted, there can be 

 no doubt. But the same argument will not apply to such as are 

 surrounded by, and enveloped in, beds of water-worn pebbles and 

 sand, which is evidently a confused mass, the consequence of ancient 

 Vol. II. 2 h 



