12 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
continent. The island of Toulon was more contracted^ and tlie 
environs of Marseilles were indicated by several smaller islands. 
The fauna of the period v^^as however but little changed— if 
we except the first appearance of dicotyledonous plants closely 
allied to those of the present time. 
On the Lignite of the Environs of Badon. By Charles Green, Esq. 
This name has been given to extensive forest beds containing 
much carbonized wood. 
The deposit prevails very generally along the Norfolk coast^ 
and may be instructively examined at Happisburgb, Bacton, 
Mundesley, Trimmingham and Cromer; at Bacton extensive 
sections are laid bare after high tides ; they are mostly foi-med 
of black peaty earthy which may be separated into thin layers, 
and has generally an aluminous taste^ and abounds with pyi'ites ; 
the depth of these sections_, from the top of the cliff, is about five 
feet, at Ostend (between Bacton and Happisburgb) about thirty, 
and at Mundesiey one hundred feet. These deposits are occa- 
sionally mixed with masses of red sand containing pipes of hard 
clay. 
This formation presents every appearance of a wood having been 
overthrown and crushed in situ, for after strong north-west winds, 
the stumps of trees may be seen really standing, with the roots 
strong, spread abroad, and intermingled with each other. In 
the winter of 1840 — 41, I measured some of these trunks, 
which were then exposed, about a foot from the root ; one of 
them measured five feet eleven inches round, and another five 
feet. At Ostend these trunks are often several ^^^ards round, 
and are thrown down indiscriminately in the strata. Some mea- 
sure as much as nine or ten feet in length. Branches, leaves, 
crushed grass, fir-cones, and numerous seed vessels occur, of 
which those of the oak and fir are distinguishable. 
In some parts, as at Bacton, the elytras of beetles, with mam- 
