8£ The Buried Palaeozoic Rocks of WiltsJiire. 



period of quiescence, when by a gradual and quiet subsidence with 

 occasional periods of rest the palaeozoic rocks, the lowest series on 

 Section C, were deposited ; the last of them to be deposited being 

 the carboniferous or coal measures. The Triassic period, which 

 immediately followed, was one of disturbance and change ; the 

 carboniferous lands were broken up, some parts being converted into 

 sea, others into land surfaces and one of these Triassic land tracts 

 seems to have run through Wiltshire, for no Triassic roeks have 

 been found either in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, or Somersetshire. 

 In the northern part of England large inland salt lakes or seas were 

 formed, and over the intervening ridges and watersheds rain and 

 rivers cut their way and carved out hills and valleys in the carbon- 

 iferous strata. How long this state of things lasted we cannot say, 

 but at any rate long enough for the removal of immense quantities 

 of rock material. 



Towards the end of this period a fresh set of disturbances began, 

 resulting in upheavals and dislocations of the older strata, bending 

 them into curves, and forming those great troughs and basins we 

 find in the coal measures at the present time, represented by the 

 curved appearance of the beds of the lower series of rocks on Section 

 C. These movements quite altered the configuration of the older 

 rocks at the surface, and especially led to the formation of a large 

 continent extending over all the northern, central, and western 

 portions of Europe. This was the Triassic continent, and it was 

 during this long land or continental period that the older rocks 

 assumed the shape and form that is roughly represented in Section 

 C. They were wasted and washed away by the continued action 

 of the atmosphere, rivers, and other forces of Nature until they 

 finally assumed the forms (problematic of course) shown on Section 

 C.j after which they became the bottom of an ocean and had the 

 newer rocks, or upper series, as shown on the same section, deposited 

 on them. And this long period of time when these various agencies 

 were at work removing the old land surfaces, and re-depositing the 

 debris elsewhere explains clearly, I trust, the great break both in 

 time and in the continuity of life which is denoted by the un- 

 comformability of the strata- 



