Where one series of rocks is covered by another without any break or discordance in the stratification they are said to be conformable. But where the older series has been tilted up or visibly denuded before being overlain by the younger, the latter is termed unconformable. This relation is one of the greatest value in structural geology, for it marks a gap in the geological record, which may represent a vast lapse of time not there recorded by strata. PART VI.--PALEONTOLOGICAL GEOLOGY This division of the science deals with fossils, or the traces of plants and animals preserved in the rocks of the earth's crust, and endeavours to gather from them information as to the history of the globe and its inhabitants. The term "fossil" (Lat. _fossilis_, from _fodere_, to dig up), meaning literally anything "dug up," was formerly applied indiscriminately to any mineral substance taken out of the earth's crust, whether organized or not. Since the time of Lamarck, however, the meaning of the word has been restricted, so as to include only the remains or traces of plants and animals preserved in any natural formation whether hard rock or superficial deposit. It includes not merely the petrified structures of organisms, but whatever was directly connected with or produced by these organisms. Thus the resin which was exuded from trees of long-perished forests is as much a fossil as any portion of the stem, leaves, flowers or fruit, and in some respects is even more valuable to the geologist than more determinable remains of its parent trees, because it has often preserved in admirable perfection the insects which flitted about in the woodlands. The burrows and trails of a worm preserved in sandstone and shale claim recognition as fossils, and indeed are commonly the only indications to be met with of the existence of annelid life among old geological formations. The droppings of fishes and reptiles, called coprolites, are excellent fossils, and tell their tale as to the presence and food of vertebrate life in ancient waters. The little agglutinated cases of the caddis-worm remain as fossils in formations from which, perchance, most other traces of life may have passed away. Nay, the very handiwork of man, when preserved in any natural manner, is entitled to rank among fossils; as where his flint-implements have been dropped into the pre-historic gravels of river-valleys or where his canoes have been buried in the silt of lake-bottoms. A study of the land-surfaces and sea-floors of the present time shows that there are so many chances against the conservation of the remains of either terrestrial or marine animals and plants that if, as is probable, the same conditions existed in former geological periods, we should regard the occurrence of organic remains among the stratified formations of the earth's crust as generally the result of various fortunate accidents.