DISTRIBUTION OF MINERAL BEDS, &C. 
51 
Oolitic 
system. 
'Portland Limestone, 
Kimmeridge Clay, 
Coral Rag, 
Oxford Clay, 
<{ Comb rash, 
Forest Marble, 
Great Oolite, 
Fuller's earth beds, 
^Inferior Oolite. 
Calcaire de Jura. Jurakalk. 
("Upper Lias shale, 
J Lias Marlstone, Calcaire- 
Lias. -( Lower Lias clay and a Gryphites, 
| shale, Gres. 
l^Lias Rock. 
Quadersandstein, 
Keuper. 
r New-red Sandstone, Marnes Irishes, Muschelkalk, 
Saliferous J Magnesian Limestone, Gres Bigarr£, Bunter Sandstein, 
system. j Exeter Red Conglo- Gres des Vosges, Rogenstein, 
(_ merate. Calcaire Peneen. Zechstein, 
Rothe-todte-liegende, 
(The Coal Measures, Terrain Houiller, 
Carboniferous or Calcaire Carbonifere, 
Mountain Limestone, Vieux Gres rouge ou 
V_01d Red Sandstone. Psammite rougeatre. 
30. In England, one of these beds, and but one, embraces 
masses of fossil salt and gypsum. They are all deposits from 
water. There has, therefore, been a time, and it has occurred 
but once, when the waters standing over certain parts of the 
island of Great Britian were so strongly impregnated with salt, 
that enough to supply the kingdom with that substance for a very 
long period, was collected into a single stratum called the new or 
variegated sandstone. Brine springs rise out of it, and in their 
neighborhood, plants, whose natural habitat is the sea-shore, 
are found many miles in the interior. 
These springs were known as early as when the Romans had 
possession of the island, and the water was evaporated to obtain 
salt, in which the soldiers received a part of their pay. The 
salt made from them is purer than that procured from the water 
of the ocean, containing none of the salts of magnesia, along with 
the chloride of sodium. The evaporation of the brine was an 
important and lucrative business in the time of Elizabeth. The 
strata from which they issue, were at length bored into, at North- 
wich, in Cheshire, in the hope of finding coal, and the enter- 
prise resulted in the discovery of a bed of salt, some of which is 
very nearly pure. Below this, and separated from it by a layer 
of clay, another was afterwards found, into which the principal 
workings have been carried. No very accurate knowledge of 
the magnitude of these saline deposits has been obtained, but ac- 
cording to the best authorities, they may extend over an area of 
