SURFACE GEOLOGY. 
89 
materials of the latter had been eithei 
confusedly mixed, or arranged in accordance 
with relative density, or in horizontal layers, 
the result would have been a monotony of 
aspect very different from the diversified 
landscapes which now adorn all portions of 
the globe. The present arrangement is the 
result of successive layers of different ma¬ 
terial, not all co-extensive in surface, nor 
equal in depth, subjected since deposition to 
violent fractures and disturbances produced 
through the agency of matter which has 
been added to the mass in the shape of 
crystalline rocks. 
The surface area of each formation in 
. England is remarkably small; we thus pos- 
i sess in our own country a miniature edition 
• of the world’s geology. 
The antiquity of the exposed strata, as 
i indicated by their relative position, increases 
! iin Great Britain from east to west. The 
imountains of the western Highlands of 
:Scotland, of Cumberland, Wales, and Corn- 
»wall, rise apparently from beneath successive 
^waves of sedimentary matter, each falling 
H 5 
