CHAPTEK YIII. 
THE AGE OF GREAT REPTILES. 
Having considered the coal-bearing rocks, we 
naturally ask, What next ? In many places the coal 
is covered with other rocks. Their story is a new 
chapter in the earth-book. 
In olden times people did not use any capital let¬ 
ters or any marks of punctuation, and often no head¬ 
lines. It is therefore no easy matter to tell where 
one chapter or one sentence leaves off and another 
begins. The last of the coal-bearing strata are not 
clearly distinguishable from the first layers of the next 
age, particularly in some places where the new strata 
conform quite closely to the old. But in other local¬ 
ities there was not only upheaval, but time enough 
for the waters to cut out hills and valleys, so that 
when the rock strata were laid there was a lack of 
conformity (see page 47). 
The rocks of the new age we have located as for¬ 
mation Humber 5. The best known among them are 
found in the Connecticut valley. The stones here 
exposed are mostly reddish brown, and are often 
known by the name ‘‘ new red sandstone,” to distin¬ 
guish them from the old sandstone of the Silurian 
65 
