30 Dr. Fitton on the Geology of Australia. 



render doubtful the opinion generally received respecting the 

 ao-e of these remarkable deposits, and a full and satisfactory 

 account of them is still a desideratum in the geology of Eng- 

 land. When, also, our imperfect acquaintance with the tra- 



vertino of Italy, and other very modern lime-stones containing 

 fresh-water shells, is considered*, — the continual deposition 

 of which, at the present time, cannot be questioned, (though 

 probably the greater part of the masses which consist of them 

 may belong to an sera preceding the actual condition of the 

 earth's surface), — it would seem that the whole subject of these 

 newer calcareous formations requires elucidation : and, if the 

 inferences connected with them do not throw considerable 

 doubt upon some opinions at present generally received, they 

 show, at least, that a great deal more is to be learned respect- 

 ing the operations and products of the most recent geological 

 epochs, than is commonly supposed. 



Since it appears that the accretion of calcareous matter is 

 continually going on at the present time, and has probably 

 taken place at all times, the stone thus formed, independent 

 of the organized bodies which it envelopes, will afford no cri- 

 terion of its date, — nor give any very certain clue to the re- 

 volutions which have subsequently acted upon it. But as ma- 

 rine shells are found in the cemented masses, at heights above 

 the sea, to which no ordinary natural operations could have 

 conveyed them, the elevation of these shells to their actual 

 place, (if not that of the rock in which they are agglutinated,) 

 must be referred to some other agency: — while the perfect pre- 

 servation of the shells, their great quantity, and the abundance 

 of the same species in the same places, make it more probable 

 that they lay originally in the situations where we now find 

 them, than that they have been transported from any consi- 

 derable distances, or elevated by any very turbulent operation. 

 Captain de Freycinet, indeed, mentions that patellae, worn by 

 attrition, and other recent shells, have been found on the west 



&c. — Taylor in Geol. Trans. 2d series, vol. ii. p. 371. Mr. Taylor states 

 the important fact that ' the remains of unknown animals are buried to- 

 gether with the shells ' in the crag of Suffolk ; but does not mention the 

 nature of these remains. —Since these pages have been at the press, Mr. 

 Warburton, by whom the coast of Essex and Norfolk has been examined 

 with great accuracy, has informed me, that the fossil bones of the crag, are 

 the same with those of the diluvial gravel, — including the remains of the 

 elephant, rhinoceros, stag, &c. 



* Some valuable observations on the formation of recent limestone, in 

 beds of shelly marl at the bottom of lakes in Scotland, have been read be- 

 fore the Geological Society, by Mr. Lyell, and will appear in the volume 

 of the Transactions now in the press.— See Annals of Philosophy, 1825, 

 p. 310. 



coast 



