246 
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE PAST. 
never was meant to. But if one of these creatures does take 
the trouble to carry home one or two of the least soiled of his 
victims, and has them stuffed (as the expression is) to 
ornament (as it is called) his house, he arrogates to himself 
the title of naturalist, and no one seems to dispute his right 
to it. 
(To be continued.) 
A CHAPTER IN THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
OF THE PAST. 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
GIVEN TO THE BURTON-ON-TRENT NATURAL HISTORY 
AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
BY HORACE T. BROWN, F.G.S., F.I.C., F.C.S. 
(Continued from page 228.) 
From the fault last referred to the Coal Measures occur at 
the surface to a little east of Burton, where they are lost 
sight of under the mantle of New Red Rocks which surround 
the Leicestershire Coalfield. These Coal Measures, as far 
west as we can trace them, have also been affected by the 
great earth movements which brought about the Charnwood 
axis of elevation, and show a system of faults and folds 
approximately parallel with this. They have also been sub¬ 
jected to plications and faulting at right angles to this axis, 
with the result that the strata of the western or more pro¬ 
ductive parts of the Coalfield have been thrown into a basin¬ 
like form, which has much conduced to their preservation. 
And here, perhaps, in dwelling upon this, it will be weil to 
correct a misapprehension which has probably arisen in the 
minds of some of you, that elevated tracts of land are 
generally coincident with upward folds or ridges in the under¬ 
lying rocks, whilst the valleys run in the troughs. This is 
undoubtedly sometimes the case, and we have seen two good 
instances of it in the structure of the Pennine and the 
Charnwood Ranges; but more frequently the very reverse 
holds good. When a mass of strata which has been thrown 
into a series of folds is planed down on its upper surface by 
the action of the sea, forming what is called a plain of marine 
denudation, it is evident that the folds which are convex 
upwards must be planed off before the concave portions or 
the troughs can be reached. Moreover, when such a plain of 
marine denudation becomes again dry land, and subjected to 
atmospheric influences, the trough and saucer-like portions of 
the folds, owing to the inclination of the strata towards each 
