treated the subject,) we attempt a description of it as known in England, and, adopting (ho advice of
“ the father of English geology," Mr. William Smith, divide it into five regions.
The first, in the descending order, maybe appropriately called the alum shale of the lias scries,
because of the preponderance of aluminous matter over the other metallic constituents. Indeed, to such
a degree is this portion of tho deposit impregnated witli it, that for a long time many tons liave been,
year by year, extracted from the schist upon the Wliitby Coast; and further, by an ingenious process
lately brought to pass, enormous quantities of tlic sulphate of magnesia arc precipitated from the residuum.
Tlie shale, which is laminated and usually horizontal, containing above much pyritaccous and sulphureous
matter and some selenite, may average from eighty to a liundred feet in depth. We saw, about five miles
from the Borough of Whitby, smoke issuing from a large cliff, wliich, capped with oolite, had toppled
down, overwhelming some of the works and habitations of the manufacturers. This combustion followed
the absorption of the sca-waler used in the pits for purifying the alum, and the rain which descended
through the enormous fissures made by so tremendous a dislocation. Years must elapse ere tlie fire
ceases, and, were we inclined to be curious, we might even contemplate the period when the whole coast,
having been ignited by some such causes, will present an active volcanic cliain.
Our oryctological researches in this division of the lias, acquainted us with some ammonites,
liaving an infinite number of septae and concentric rings. We also gathered vertebrm of the
Ichthyosaurus, and were informed by Uie labourers there that exuviae of the crocodile were
occasionally found in, the inferior portion of the shale. To these add thousands and thousands
of belemnites, those most cxtvaordinai-y of all the ancient moUusca — of many peculiar fashions,
and here and there a claw,—head,—abdomen and tail,—wrecks of the once much limited class
Crustacea,
The presence in the alum scliist of crocodilian remains, and we venture to say some frosh-water
shells and boulder-stones, clearly prove the embouchure of a lake ov river; if we rollect upon the
great area occupied by this deposit, the width of which exceeds twenty-eight miles, and bear in mind
tliat tliese fiuviatile or lacustrine relics are distributed throughout, liow specious an<l imposing the ideas
present with us of a vast continent, sending forth a mighty stream the solitary liaunt of tliese voracious
reptiles. Again, jet, awhile imagined to be of vegetable production, found in the inferior beds, though
sparely, indicating the sterility of this lonely terrene,—and the presence of ores and petroleum, Plutonian
effects, cause us to dream of horrid convulsions in the earth’s entrails and give the last finish to the
gliastly picture wc liave presumed to draw.
We describe the second division, which may be called the marl-stone of the lias series; and
here we would remark that so much of it as is developed a t Whitby accords precisely with its
equivalent of the Tor Hill at Glastonbury, (a distance of move than throe hundred miles,) where the
whole of it is revealed. And a most interesting fact offers itself, affording otlier powerful authority for
the opinion we express upon the circumstances attending tlic formation of tlie preceding stratum ;—tliis
marl-stone of the Tor Hill assimilates with tlic lowermost part of llic arenaceous deposit which intervenes
between it and the inferior oolite, and the combination occurred so naturally and directly (hat tlic trochii,
sometime considered of the same epocli witli the latter, have been seen by us to occupy individually both
rocks; nor has terrestrial or fresh-wator monument of animated nature ever licen detected in either
of them.
Reverting to the description of tlie marl-stone, we desire tho reader to imagine beds of rubbly lias,
containing myriads of ammonites, belemnites, gryphm and tercbi'atulac, with layers of liighly crystalized
limestones of great thickness and eccentric fracture, having, with the shells just enumerated, junks of
calcareous and spathose wood, scaphites, plagiostoma, ostrai, and pcctens, with traces of pentacrinites
and gigantic saurians. Then, seeking at Lyme-Regis, as preferable to the foot of tlic Tor, for the inferior
seams of this marl-stone, we find beds of quasi blue marl with liere and there a stratum of stone—dull
coloured and clayey; also some boulders of a lamellar structure, containing, haply, ammonites and fish.
And here is tlie remarkable pentacrinal family, of whicli tliis marl-stone may be said to be tiie special
charnel-liousc ; and it appeara that some of the numerous species, born with it, died there when otlier
accidents fell out ; these were young races perhaps, which not having time for colonization, met witli a
common fate, in consequence of tlic invasion of their circumscribed territory by misliaps of local
character. Fish—that beautiful one called the dapcdium politum,—defensive fin-bones, palates,
Crustacea and echinodennata a few,—and some sliells liave also been found in it.
The third of tho series is blue-marl,—blue, verily; having scarce a type of lime-stone, except
indurated clay of an irregular fracture and some concretionary nodules may be so considered. Tlie blue-
marl of Lyme-Regis, fifty feet or even more in depth, is strongly impregnated with alumina and oilier
metallic earths. Layers of sulphate of lime of a coniferous construction, from a millimeter to an inch in
thickness, are sometimes seen, Tlio novel iAing-peculiar to liie blue-marl—designated Cupid’s wing,
Briareaii pentacriiiite and ammonites arc generally coated with a brilliant sulphite. Other bodies also
of unttiought shape, called mushrooms from their exact resemblance lo agarici, distinguish it.
Tlie same constitution, mineral and zoological, belongs to the blue-marl Imlh a t Glastonlmry and
Lyme; and it is worthy of remark that at neitlicr place have saurian bones been found in it. Wc
carefully examined vast quantities of this marl in expectation of iheir discoveiy but in vain, and
Miss Anning adds to our lier own accordant testimony. Nevertheless, as tlic blue-marl is an essential
member of the lias series, we doubt not but that Ichthyosauji and Plesiosauri lived where its deposition
occurred ; they liad probably timely warning to escape the troubled watoi's ere they were charged to a
fatal degree witli tliose properties which visited the great zoophital tribe of tlio hundred-arms pcntacrinite
with universal destruction: capable of little locomotion the destruction of these was inevitable, but
nature—grieved at tlie premature extinction of such exquisitcly-formod beings—enshrined tlicir remains
in a golden pall and so perpetuated them to a later day than any of proud Egypt’s Tariclicutian
memorials are destined to boast.
Tiic nodules spoken of above, liavc organic rcliquæ enclosed in tliem frequently. Some of them
contain a nucleus so like the saurian copros that we ascertain Lhcir mincralogical structure but liy
the most severe scrutiny; these are invariably scptarian.
The limestones compose the fourth section; the inestimable treasury of the most splendid epoch
in the records of the planet-ante-human. Deposited in a fallioralcss ocean, tlic stern universality
of which was only marred by the sombrous sand-bank as of yesterday’s creation, Llicy perpetuate tlie
characters of the things that were;—figures so much stranger than those of fiction that man, gazing
upon them, doubted their import, and—oh, the monstrous creatures of liis vain reverie.
But the immortal mind, progressing to infinity has at length comprehended some of the surviving
wrecks of tlic olden realities, and their admirable constructions reveal,—instead of the uncouth pliantasms
that bewildered the inquirer of yore.—the earliest essays of the Ineffable First Cause in the stupendous
but all-harmonious chain of effects.
Tlic globe, sweltering with tho intense licat that its primitive revolution in space generated, was a
fitting habitation for the cold-blooded reptiles, whose day and generation-hid in the a g e before ages—
may not be computed by us finite. In the crust—the external covering of tlie miglity frame,-in the lias
limestones are exhiliitcci the most fascinating oryctological features. Ichtliyosauri, fish—molluscous
and vertebrate,-which delighted in the depths of the deep sea ; ferns and banana-like trees (liat
flourished in tiie slimy marsli or fringed the sunny lagoon and estuary where preyed tlie wondious
Plcsiosaui-i, The ptcro-dactylo too, that paradox which, uniting some of the most specific distinctions
of tlic saurian licnd with a bir<l-and-bat-!ike conformation of body and extremities, has given rise to
vagaries of tliought as uncertain as the sombre twiliglit of the ungariiishcd and desolate world which
ccliood lo the fiapping of its leathern wings. They have ccascd from off tlie face of the earth; inexorable
timo long since extinguished the last of tlicir race and all that survives of these once-grim and omnipotent
aborigines are a few cnislicd bones as unsightly as they are rare.
At Lymo, wliorc the deposition of the lias was more uncertain, it being accelerated or retarded
according to circumstances, there arc whole strata of stone devoted to the preservation of one or another