THE DEPOSIT, COETANEOUS. 79 
Upon the whole, I think | may with confidence 
refer the reader to various observations I have been 
able to introduce in refutation of the plausibility of 
this separation of our rocks in respect of the fossils 
they contain, or on the other hand, in respect of their 
fossiliferous and non-fossiliferous condition. I en- 
treat the naturalist to dismiss the speciousness of 
this doctrine from his mind in favour of more solid 
and convincing arguments, and, in concluding this 
part of the subject, I wish to draw his attention to 
one other fact illustrating as I conceive the novel 
conception here indulged in, of a complicated and 
gradual, though coetaneous deposition ; this is, that 
in numerous quarries of the three fossiliferous strata, 
but more especially in lime, itis seen that distinct 
and separate beds of the substance have been laid, 
so that, while on sure data we have contended for 
consecutive steps in the nearly simultaneous pre- 
cipitation of the several materials, as also for a 
deficiency of precision in their mode of occurrence 
and for their intermixture, there is here ground for 
supposing that the same rule of quickly-succeeding 
precipitations extended even to the separate kinds 
of rocks respectfully, and it is worthy of being con- 
sidered, whether this fact may offer any explanation 
of the local occurrence of the majority of our fossil 
specimens. 
