Eight Lectures on Geology; Delivered at the Broadway Tabernacle in the City of New York (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 edition. Excerpt: ...in the attempt to decypher these ancient memorials of the Earth s History. Now the volume which I intend to take down to-night is that which we term the Coal formation; and I shall speak of it only so far as to Show the relative position, and the stateof the different periods when they were deposited beneath the water. Now when I term this formation Coal, I merely mean this assemblage of strata which rests on the Older Sandstone, and in which is found that valuable fuel we call coal; and although the quantity in which it is contained is very small in comparison with the bulk and volume of the other strata, there is still great interest and importance attached to it. We'see that in going from the highest to the lowest beds yet discovered, the coal occupies quite an ancient position-one indicating a formation low down in the Sea---as we have above it the most modern formations. We have first the Post-Pliocene, then the Tertiary formation, then the Chalk, which is made up of calcareous matter formed mostly, at least in Europe, from decomposed shells and coals and of those green marls which are found in New Jersey and are of such extensive use in Agriculture; then we have the Jura limestone or Oolite, in which also are masses of coral like the common coral reefs: below this are two other groups, of which I shall not speak at present, and lastly we come down to the Carboniferous or coal-bearing stratum which rests upon the thick sandstone beds, or the limestone containing corals and which like every other formation contains species of animals, shells and plants of different specie, from these immediately antecedent or following. Below this again we see limestone and shale, which enter most largely into the structure of the rocks of the...