74 BLTTT. THE DISPLACEMENT OF BEACH-LINES. [No. 1. 1889.] 



Paris: 

 Marne a Pholadomya. 

 Gypse n. 3. 

 Marne a Lucina. 

 Gypse n. 2-1. 

 Marne bleue. 

 Marne blanche. 

 Marne verte. 

 Calcaire de Brie. 

 Marne et mollasse marine. 



Wight: 



Middle and Upper Headon. 

 Osborne. 



Bembridge limestone. 

 Bembridge Oyster bed. 

 Bembridge and Hamstead marls. 

 Hamstead Corbula beds. 



And this arrangement completely agrees with the palseontological 

 evidence. The Middle Headon is considered by palaeontologists to 

 be synchronous with the Gypse marin, the Corbula beds with 

 the Lower Sables de Fontainebleau, and they correspond re- 

 spectively with the same arcs. The intervening series of 

 beds contains, in both basins (the Parisian and the Hamp- 

 shire one) almost the same number of alternations. I cannot 

 help thinking that this shows, that the alternation of strata was 

 effected by a general cause, and it seems highly probable 

 that this cause is the precession of the equinoxes. And 

 as the curve of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit may 

 be said to be, at the same time, a curve showing the oscil- 

 lations of the sea level, these oscillations must, from some cause 

 or another, be dependent on the variations of the eccentricity 

 I would now ask geologists to test the correctness of my views 

 by comparing as many Tertiary profiles as possible with the 

 curve. 



