MISCELLANEA. 
193 
Having arriv^ed at this result, upon which we propose to 
found our argument^ we will at once proceed to the subject.* 
The principal geological divisions of England indicate very 
clearly a distinct series of altitudes, which, as we have before 
remarked, is the fundamental principle of the system. We 
have a tertiary series on the eastern coast of England, gra- 
dually rising towards the commencement of the secondary 
strata, and so on in the ascending scale, until the transition 
rocks complete the summit, and there is the natural fall 
again towards the sea boundary : this is the latitudinal sec- 
tion. The longitudinal sections vary much more in their 
character. A line drawn due north and south through the 
eastern counties would present but little variation of altitude, 
the strata being tertiary in their character, and only slightly 
undulating. Further to the west, the line would pass through 
a slightly elevated range of the more recent secondary rocks, 
and by continuing the series of lines, we should find that it 
had a progressive series of increased altitudes, until that 
which intersected the elevated district of Cumberland, Lan- 
cashire, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, &c. 
Now, for a moment survey the escarpments of the coast, 
which present themselves at those points to the west of this 
line. We have a bold outlier along the coasts of Cumber- 
land, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, and again in Devonshire 
— on account of the character which it would have presented^ 
had not other causes disturbed the sequence of the deposi- 
* An interesting article on drainage and ii-rigation will be found in the West- 
minster Review for December, 1842, not so much suggestive of the mode in 
which this important agricultural economy might be carried out, but explanatory 
of the advantages which drainage would produce, and irrigation insure. Our 
readers would do well to compare the subjects of the articles published in this 
Work and the Westminster Review — the works mentioned at the heading of the 
latter — and a pamphlet on drainage, entitled " a Letter to Phihp Pusey," by 
J; Bailey Denton, Esq., recently published by Ridgways. 
VOL. II. NO. XVII. X 
