526 IN TROUGHS OR BASINS. 
labour and ingenuity of man. Let us briefly ex- 
amine the results that have been accomplished. 
The place of the great Coal formation, in rela- 
tion to the other series of strata, is shewn in our 
first section (PL 1. Fig. 14.) This ideal section 
represents an Example of dispositions which are 
repeated over various areas upon the crust of 
the Globe.* 
The surface of the Earth is found to be covered 
with a series of irregular depressions or Basins, 
divided from one another, and sometimes wholly 
surrounded by projecting portions of subjacent 
strata, or by unstratified crystalline rocks, which 
have been raised into hills and mountains, of 
various degrees of height, direction and conti- 
nuity. On either side of these more elevated 
regions, the strata dip with more or less incli- 
nation, towards the lower spaces between one 
mountain range and another. (See Plate 1.) 
This disposition in the form of Troughs or 
Basins, which is common to all formations, has 
been more particularly demonstrated in the Car- 
boniferous Series, (See PI. 65. Fig. 1, 2, 3.) be- 
cause the valuable nature of beds of Coal often 
causes them to be wrought throughout their whole 
extent. 
* The Coal Formation is here represented as having partaken 
of the same elevatory movements, which have raised the strata of 
all formations towards the mountain Ridges, that separate one 
basin from another basin. 
