Elements of geology / by Charles Lyell.

  • Charles Lyell
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of geology / by Charles Lyell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/582 page 8
    power to convey fine sand or mud into the sea. Hence, alternate layers of gravel and fine sedi- ment accumulate under water, and such alter- nations are found by geologists in the interior of every continent. * If a stratified arrangement, and the rounded forms of pebbles, are alone sufficient to lead us to the conclusion that certain rocks origin- ated under water, this opinion is farther con- firmed by the distinct and independent evidence of fossils, so abundantly included in the earth's crust. By a fossil is meant any body, or the traces of the existence of any body, whether ani- mal or vegetable, which has been buried in the earth by natural causes. Now the remains of animals, especially of aquatic species, are found almost everywhere imbedded in stratified rocks. Shells and corals are the most frequent, and with them are often associated the bones and teeth of fish, fragments of wood, impressions of leaves, and other organic substances. Fossil shells of forms such as now abound in the sea, are met with far inland, both near the surface and at all depths below it, as far as the miner can penetrate. They occur at all heights above the level of the ocean, having been observed at an elevation of from 8000 to 9000 feet in the Alps and Pyrenees, more -* See Principles of Geology by the author; refer to * Mag- nan/ and * Conglomerates,’ in the Index of different editions.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3