THE 
GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 
NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. IV. 
No. XI.— NOVEMBER, 1877. 
AETICLES. 
I. — American “ Surface Geologt,” and its Relation to British. 
WlTH SOME ReMARKS ON THE GlACIAL CoNDITIONS IN BrITAIN, 
ESPEOIALLY IN REFERENCE TO THE “ GREAT IcE AGE ” OF Mk. 
James Geikie. 
(PART I.) 
By Searles Y. Wood, Jan., F.G.S., 
Illustrated by Two Maps and several Sections. 1 
(PLATE XY.) 
F ROM no part of the worid bave we of late years derived more 
additions to the Geological Record tban from North America. 
Besides important additions. to the earliest pages of that record, the 
rieh coliections made by the United States Surveyors, both of fauna 
and flora, from the Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene deposits, have 
thrown much light upon the life history of the Eartli ; and it is even 
contended that they have bridged over the interval which, notwith- 
standing the Maestricht beds, the Pisolitic. and the Faxoe Limestones, 
still remains sharply marked between the Cretaceous and Tertiary 
formations of Europe so far as they have yet been examined. 
As regards those latest deposits, whicli, by adoption from the 
Frenchmen, as otker fasbions are from the Frenchwomen, it has 
become the fashion to call “ Quatemary ,” 2 and which have received 
of late years so large a share of attention from geologists, Americans 
have not been behind tlieir European brethren in devoting to it 
abundant investigation. Memoirs and notices by Principal Dawson 
and others relative to the ne wer Geology of Canada have made us 
familiär witli the general features of the Glacial and post-Glacial 
formations of the lower basin of the St. Lawrence, as have those of 
Professors Dana, Winchell, and others, with similar features in 
the United States, wliile recently 3 there has appeared, in the Report 
of the Geological Survey of Ohio, a comprehensive memoir by Prof. 
1 The map of Yorkshire with sections will appear with Part III. 
2 Considering that the term “ Primary ” had long become obsolete, and that the 
term “ Secondary ” was fast beeoming so, we might have been spared the absurdity 
of “ Quatemary.” However, as Crinoline has done so, I suppose, it will go out o’f 
fashion in time. The Separation of Geology into “ solid ” and “ superficial ” officially 
made by the late Director of the Geological Survey of England, and on the basis o’f 
which the maps of the National Survey are to be delineated, is, to my mind, also an 
absurdity; but in deference to the leaders of fashion, I have adopted the term of 
“ Surface Geology” in the title of this paper. 
3 The Surface Geology of Ohio, by J. S. Newberry (Columbus, 1874). 
DECADE U. VOL. IV.— NO. XI. 31 
