Geology,] 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
591 
the mass in which they occur, as belonging to a formation 
still more recent than the upper marine beds of the environs 
of Paris * 
The geological period indicated by these facts, being pro- 
bably more recent than the tertiary beds containing nummu- 
lites, and generally than the Paris and London strata, accords 
with the date which has hitherto been assigned to the ‘ crag’ 
beds of Suffolk, Essex, and Norfolk f: but later observations 
render doubtful the opinion generally received respecting the 
age of these remarkable deposits, and a full and satisfactory 
account of them is still a desideratum in the geology of Eng- 
land.— -When, also, our imperfect acquaintance with the tra- 
vertine of Italy, and other very modern lime-stones con- 
taining fresh-water shells, is considered X , — the continual de- 
position of which, at the present time, cannot be questioned, 
(though probably the greater part of the masses which consist 
of them may belong to an sera preceding the actual condition 
* Brongniart, in Cuvier’s “ Ossemens Fossiles,” 2d Edit. vol. ii. 
p. 427. 
t Conybeare and Phillips’ “ Outlines,” ^c. p. IT.— Geol. Trans, i. 
p. 327, 8fc . — Taylor in Geol. Trans. 2d series, Vol. ii. p. 371. 
Mr. Taylor states the important fact that ‘ the remains of un- 
known animals are buried together with the shells’ in the crag 
of Suffolk; but does not mention the nature of these remains. 
— Since these pages have been at the press, Mr. Warburton, by 
whom the coast of Essex and Norfolk has been examined with 
great accuracy, has informed me, that the fossil bones of the crag, 
are the same with those of the diluvial gravel,— including the re- 
mains of the elephant, rhinoceros, stag, &c . 
X Some valuable observations on the formation of recent lime- 
stone, in beds of shelly marl at the bottom of lakes in Scotland, 
have been read before the Geological Society by Mr. Lyell, and will 
appear in the volume of the Tran^ctions now in the press.— See 
Annals of Philosophy, 1825. p. 310. 
