TABULAR GEOLOGICAL PROFILE.

TABULAR GEOLOGICAL PROFILE.

STRATA
1. Recent Deposits
T
E
R
T
I
A
R
Y		2. Pliocene
3. Miocene.
4. Eocene
S
E
C
O
N
D
A
R
Y		5. Cretaceous
6. Oolitic
7. Lias
8. Triassic
P
R
I
M
A
R
Y		9. Permian
10. Carboniferous
11. Devonian
12. Silurian
13. Cambrian
14. Laurentian
CHARACTERISTICS
FOSSIL REMAINS
1. Recent Deposits.
Irish Elk
2. Pliocene.
Mastodon.
3. Miocene.
(1) Cerithium.
(2) Segnoia.
4. Eocene.
(1) Nummulites.
(2) Natica.
5. Cretaceous.
(1) Inoceramus.
(2) Turrilites.
(3) Pecten.
(4) Hamites.
6. Oolite.
(1) Pholadomya.
(2) Trigonia.
(3) Mantellia.
(4) Nerinæa.
7. Lias.
(1) Icthyosaurus.
(2) Ammonites.
8. Triassic.
(1) Labyrinthodon.
(2) Encrinus.
9. Permian.
(1) Bakewellia.
(2) Productus.
(3) Palæoniscus.
10. Carboniferous.
(1) Goniatites.
(2) Lepidodendron.
(3) Calamites.
11. Devonian.
(1) Pterichthys.
12. Silurian.
(1) Goniatites.
(2) Lepidodendron.
(3) Calamites.
13. Cambrian.
(1 Strophomena.
(2) Lingula.
(3) Pentamerus.
(4) Calymene.
14. Laurentian.
(1) Oldhamia.

Had the levelling power of water never met with an antagonistic force, there can be no doubt that the last remains of the dry land, supposing it could ever have risen above the ocean, must long since have been swept into the sea. But while water has been constantly tending to reduce the irregularities of the earth’s surface to one dull level, the expansive force of subterranean heat has been no less unceasingly active in

restoring the unevenness of the external crust by the ejection or protrusion of new masses of stone (porphyry, trachyte, basalt, lava, &c.), and by the consequent disturbance, in a variety of ways, of the stratified rocks.

AQUEOUS STRATA DISTURBED BY IGNEOUS FORMATIONS.
B C D, aqueous strata, originally horizontal, raised by protrusion of A, granitic rock.

Plutonic and volcanic eruptions and upheavings, in their reaction against the levelling tendencies of water, have in many places deranged, broken, fractured, contorted, or raised strata deposited in horizontal layers at the bottom of the sea, or of large inland lakes. Sometimes a huge mass of crystalline rock, glowing from the furnaces of the deep, has, by its irresistible expansion, slowly forced its way through the superincumbent sedimentary formations, which, yielding to the pressure from below, now form vast mountain slopes, or vertical rock walls, or have even been so totally inverted that strata of a more ancient formation now overlie those of more modern date, and excite the wonder of the puzzled geologist.