The Medals of Creation, Volumes 1 and 2: First Lessons in Geology and the Study of Organic RemainsMantell, Gideon Algernon
Science
The Medals of Creation, Volumes 1 and 2: First Lessons in Geology and the Study of Organic Remains
Mantell, Gideon Algernon
Geology -- England -- Guidebooks; Paleontology
The Wealden; a formation, whose fluviatile character was first
observed and established by the researches of the author (_Wond._
p. 360). A series of clays, sands, sandstones and limestones, with
layers of lignite, and extensive coal-fields; characterized by the
remains of several peculiar terrestrial reptiles, namely, _Iguanodon_,
_Hylæosaurus_, _Pelorosaurus_, _Megalosaurus_; _Crocodilians_ and
_Chelonians_; _Enaliosaurians_; _Pterodactyles_, &c.; Fishes of
fluviatile and marine genera; Insects of several orders; fresh-water
mollusks and crustaceans; conifers, cycads, ferns, &c.
_Subdivisions_:--
1. _Weald-clay_, with Sussex or Petworth marbles.
2. _Tilgate-grit_, and _Hastings sands_.
3. _Ashburnham clays_, shales, and grey limestones.
4. _Purbeck beds_; argillaceous and calcareous shales, and
fresh-water limestones and marbles. Petrified forest, and layers
of vegetable earth; with Cycads and Conifers.
_Obs._--Clays and limestones, almost wholly composed of fresh-water
snail-shells, and minute crustaceans, generally occupy the uppermost
place in the series in Sussex; sands and sandstones, with shales, and
lignite, prevail in the middle; while in the lowermost, argillaceous
beds, with shelly marbles or limestones, again appear; and, buried
beneath the whole, is a petrified pine-forest, with the trees still
erect, and the vegetable mould undisturbed! The upper clay beds and
marbles form the deep valleys or Wealds of Kent and Sussex, and the
middle series constitutes the Forest-Ridge. The Purbeck strata are
obscurely seen in some of the deepest valleys of eastern Sussex;
they emerge on the Dorsetshire coast, form the Island or Peninsula
whose name they bear, and surmount the northern brow of the Isle of
Portland. On the southern coast of the Isle of Wight, the Wealden
beds emerge from beneath the Greensand strata between Atherfield and
Compton Bay on the western limit, and in Sandown Bay on the eastern;
and their characteristic fossils are continually being washed up on
the sea-shore.
The Jurassic or Oolitic Formation. (_Wond._ pp. 202, and 491). A
marine formation of great extent and thickness, consisting of strata
of limestone and clay, which abound in extinct species and genera of
marine shells, Corals, Insects, Fishes, and terrestrial and marine
Reptiles. Land plants of many peculiar types, and the remains of two
genera of Mammalia.
_Subdivisions_:--
Upper Oolite of Portland, Wilts, Bucks, Berks, &c.
1. _Portland Oolite._ Limestone of an oolitic structure, abounding
in ammonites, trigoniæ, &c. and other marine exuviæ. Green and
ferruginous sands--layers of chert.
2. _Kimmeridge clay._ Blue clay, with septaria, and bands of sandy
concretions--marine shells and other organic remains--_ostrea
deltoidea_. Beds of lignite.
Middle Oolite of Oxford, Bucks, Yorkshire, &c.
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