OP THE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY ROCKS AND STRATA. 37 
same name might be applied amongst the formations of their own 
country. For his rothe-todte-liegende, an equivalent was sup- 
posed to be found in an English stratum underlying the coal for- 
mation, and called the old-red-sandstone — for his weiss-liegende 
in the new-red-sandstone, and for the others in the higher beds. 
The Americans, deriving their knowledge of Geology from 
English rather than continental publications, have pursued a si- 
milar course, and endeavoured to refer their sandstones to some 
of the rocks bearing the same general name on the island of 
Great Britain. Thus, the sandstone formation mentioned as com- 
mencing in Massachusetts, and extending through the interven- 
ing states into South Carolina, has been called the old-red-sand- 
stone. 
But recently, British Geologists have placed the old-red-sand- 
stone amongst the gray-wackes, and find in the upper and lower 
members of the ne?#-red-sandstone", the equivalents of the 
weiss-liegende and rothe-todte-liegende of Werner. What is now 
to be done with the sandstone of North Carolina and the other 
Atlantic states? Is it to go along with the old-red-sandstone of 
England amongst the gray-wackes, or to be regarded as the equi- 
valent of the rothe-todte-liegende, or does it correspond to nei- 
ther ? We cannot tell. If doubt and uncertainty hang for years 
over the relations of the strata of England and Germany, separa- 
ted by an interval of only four or five hundred miles, it may well 
be expected that it will not be less in the ease of rocks lying on 
the opposite sides of the wide Atlantic. The sandstone is in con- 
tact with the conglomerate rocks of the transition formation in 
our neighbourhood, but bears no more resemblance to them than 
granite does to mica slate. It probably is not more ancient than 
the old, nor more recent than the new-red-sandstone of the 
English strata, but no satisfactory evidence has been furnished 
that it is the same with either. 
OF THE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY ROCKS AND 
STRATA. 
22. These being, with few exceptions, of mechanical origin, 
require no particular description. They are : First — Limestones, 
which are generally constituted either in part or altogether of the 
exuviae of shell-fish. Secondly — Sand ; and thirdly— Clay. 
They are of very different degrees of induration, being some- 
times consolidated into very hard and compact rocks, whilst in 
other cases they are loose earthy aggregates. In these forma- 
tions it is not the mineral character so much as the position they 
occupy in the crust of the earth, and the organic remains they 
embrace, that is the object of attention. If the red-sandstone of 
our vicinity be referred to the transition class, the secondary and 
tertiary strata of North Carolina (the alluvions of our rivers ex-- 
cepted) are confined to the low country. 
4* 
