In North China some of the earliest rocks consist of quartzite sandstones overlaid with shale containing iron ore seams. Above them there is thick silicious limestone with Col-lonia-like formations. In Europe these ancient rocks are represented by the Torredonian sandstones of Scotland and the stromatolitie dolo~ mites of Norway which are more or less fossilles: but in the Cambrian series we find large quantities of the first absolutely indisputable fossils, such as brachiopods and trilobites, Above the Cambrian series there is limestone formation belonging to the Ordovielan series some hundred metres thick containing cephalopods, Above sare 9° metres Spirial sea shells and early cuttlefish
shales and sandstones deposited in Fivers and lakes: but there follows! 'a marine stratum belonging to the Carboniferous period, and then sand-ones and shales indicating con-Uinental conditions. Above this is. marine stratum with marine fauna belonging to. the transition from Carboniferous to Permian conditions. Here continental conditions again supervene with a dozen seams. of coal of varying thickness. Thus at a glance we have the story of sub-Mergences and upheavals which alternately plunged the country into the sea and raised it up again into and.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.