88 



Feather slonhaugK^s Geological Report. 



elevated the whole area, and afterwards depressed it so as to 

 give the ocean once more dominion over it. The wealden 

 group, a great part of which is in our day a portion of the 

 earth's surface, furnishes most instructive proofs of the changes 

 of level to which the land was subject in ancient times. In 

 these particular instances they seem to have been accompanied 

 by no violence, and no evidences of great abrasion being pres- 

 ent, the movement would seem to have been a quiet vertical 

 one, up and down; for the high inclination of the beds at Lul- 

 worth cove appears to belong to another movement, which 

 took place subsequent to the deposition of the chalk, and 

 which threw the thick beds of the Isle of Wight upon their 

 edges, in the manner that the oolitic beds of the Alpine chain 

 are represented in diagram No. 7. In the cretaceous group, 

 most of the organic remains are marine ; marine plants, corals, 

 and sponges abound. New genera of fish are found in the 

 chalk, with the mososaurus and turtles. Some of the chalk 

 fossils are extremely beautiful. 



In regard to the vegetation of this secondary period, a 

 change is perceived even in the new red sandstone group. 

 The cryptogamous plants of the ancient period become less 

 numerous and of diminished size, as if the temperature already 

 was abating, whilst the coniferous or fir tribe begins distinctly 

 to appear. In the beds of the oolitic and chalk formations, 

 this last constitutes a very large portion of the vegetation. Of 

 the cycadese, several species of zamia occur amongst the im- 

 perfect coal seams of the lower series, and constitute a forest, 

 as has been before shown in the wealden group. 



The tertiary order extends, in a surprising manner, the pro- 

 gressive advance towards the present order of nature, as has 

 before been noticed in the remarks on Mr. Lyell's arrangement ; 

 changes of level appear to have been frequent, marine and 

 fresh-water beds alternating. Lacustrine remains increase, 

 and show that dry land and fresh-water streams were giving 

 a new character to the earth. In the lowest part of the group 



