ABSTRACT
The simple statement that one part of a coast consists of granite, and another of sandstone or clay-slate, can hardly be considered of any service to geology; and the labour thus thrown away might have been more profitably spent, and thus saved the collector much ultimate disappointment. It is now generally recognized that both the sedimentary rocks, and those which have come from in a softened state, are nearly the same over the whole world. In formations from a few hundred to a thousand feet and upwards in thickness, the whole of which does actually belong to the same geological age, and is therefore characterized by same fossils, most curious and important results may be sometimes deduced. Earth has been observed on icebergs in the open ocean; portions of such earth ought to be collected, washed with freshwater, filtered, gently dried, wrapped up in brown paper, and sent home by the first opportunity to be tried, with due precautions.
