Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1820 Excerpt: ...the' Mountain Lime and great Coal formation. The.Coal of England occurs, above the Mountain Lime, in strata of solid Coal often many feet thick, alternating with strata of slaty Clay (called Shale), of Iron Stone, and Sandstone; and occupies immense tracts of country in Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Derbyshire,. Staffordshire, and S. Wales. 264. Reposing horizontally on the basset edges of the above-mentioned Coal strata (which are usually Vbrje inclined), we find the new red Sandstone, or new red rock Marl formation. Of this series the lowest member is the Magnesian Limestone, which will be described under the Limestone family. The middle region is usually occupied by beds of Conglomerate and of loose red Sandstone, and Sand; alternating with and covered by a vast thickness of red rock Marl. It is in this formation only that Salt Springs and Rock Salt have hitherto been discovered; viz. in the counties of Worcester, Stafford, Salop, and Chester. Gypsum occurs in it abundantly in the form of Alabaster, fibrous Gypsum, and Selenite. It furnishes the only Alabaster quarries that exist in England. At Keddleston House, near Derby, are lofty pillars, extremely beautiful, the shafts of which are of Alabaster from the neighbourhood. Many sandy strata become consolidated by a calcareous cement and in this state of union form useful and hard building stone. See verse 292. Vera 298. The Limestone of England may be conveniently divided into seven distinct kinds. 1. Primitive Limestone, or Statuary Marble; which is of extremely rare occurrence in England, and is only found in small quantity, in Devonshire and Anglesea. It abounds in Italy, Switzerland, and Greece; whence it is obtained for the purposes of sculpture. This formation is alluded to in the text under t...