In order, therefore, to establish a chronological succession of fossiliferous groups, a geologist must begin with a single section in which several sets of strata lie one upon the other. He must then trace these formations, by attention to their mineral character and fossils, continuously, as far as possible, from the starting-point. As often as he meets with new groups, he must ascertain by superposition their age relatively to those first examined, and thus learn how to intercalate them in a tabular arrangement of the whole.
By this means the German, French, and English geologists have determined the succession of strata throughout a great part of Europe, and have adopted pretty generally the following groups, almost all of which have their representatives in the British Islands.
Abridged General Table of Fossiliferous Strata.
TABULAR VIEW OF THE FOSSILIFEROUS STRATA, SHOWING THE ORDER OF SUPERPOSITION OR CHRONOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF THE PRINCIPAL GROUPS DESCRIBED IN THIS WORK.
POST-TERTIARY EXAMPLES
POST-TERTIARY
EXAMPLES
POST-
TERTIARY 1.
RECENT
Shells and mammals, all of living species. British
Clyde marine strata, with canoes (p. 146).
Foreign
Danish kitchen middens (p. 146).
Lacustrine mud, with remains of Swiss lake-dwellings (p. 148).
Marine strata inclosing Temple of Serapis, at Puzzuoli (p. 146). 2.
POST-
PLIOCENE.
Shells, recent mammalia in part extinct. British
Loam of Brixham cave, with flint implements and bones of extinct and living quadrupeds (p. 157)
Drift near Salisbury, with bones of mammoth, Spermophilus, and stone implements (p. 161).
Glacial drift of Scotland, with marine shells and remains of mammoth (p. 176.
Erratics of Pagham and Selsey Bill (p. 182).
Glacial drift of Wales, with marine fossil shells, about 1400 feet high, on Moel Tryfaen (p. 181).
Foreign
Dordogne caves of the reindeer period (p. 150).
Older valley-gravels of Amiens, with flint implements and bones of extinct mammalia (p. 152).
Loess of Rhine (p. 154).
Ancient Nile-mud forming river-terraces (p. 154).
Loam and breccia of Liege caverns, with human remains (pp. 156, 157).
Australian cave breccias, with bones of extinct marsupials (p. 158).
Glacial drift of Northern Europe (p. 166, p. 174).
TERTIARY OR CAINOZOIC
PLIOCENE 3. NEWER PLIOCENE. The shells almost all of living species. British Bridlington beds, marine Arctic fauna (p. 189). Glacial boulder formation of Norfolk cliffs (p. 190). Forest-bed of Norfolk cliffs, with bones of Elephas meridionalis, etc. (p. 191). Chillesford and Aldeby beds, with marine shells, chiefly Arctic (p. 192). Norwich crag (p. 193). Foreign Eastern base of Mount Etna, with marine shells (p. 204). Sicilian calcareous and tufaceous strata (p. 205, 206). Lacustrine strata of Upper Val d’Arno (p. 207). Madeira leaf-bed and land-shells (p. 532). 4. OLDER PLIOCENE. Extinct species of shells forming a large minority. British Red crag of Suffolk, marine shells, some of northern forms (p. 194, 195). White or coralline crag of Suffolk (p. 197). Foreign Antwerp crag (p. 204). Subapennine marls and sands (p. 208).
EXAMPLES