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VI.—The Succession of the Later Tertiaries in Great Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Alfred Bell
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Extract

Those interested in the geology of the Upper Tertiaries must have noticed the divergence in the views entertained by different writers as to the succession of the various strata of which they are composed. Sundry causes may be assigned for this, such as the disposition in some quarters to regard the “lapse of time occupied in the accumulation of even our later Tertiary deposits” “as representing but a very brief chapter in geological history,” or the massing of the several groups of strata in bulk, or putting aside as of little value the organic evidence they contain, which, even where this is appealed to, is too narrowly treated, as where one author— a specialist in his own branch — asks, “Could the more modem Tertiaries be classed by their Invertebrata?”

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , February 1886 , pp. 67 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1886

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References

page 67 note 1 Dr. H. Woodward, On Rhytina gigas.

page 67 note 2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvii. p. 233.Google Scholar

page 68 note 1 The presence of this shell seems to indicate that great hydrographical changes had taken place, probably the influx of a heavy current setting in from the north, bringing the Tellen in profusion. It sufficiently distinguishes the beds in which it occurs from the immediately preceding Upper Crag or the Chillesford Series.

page 68 note 3 This is the recent species figured in Forbes and Hanley's British Mollusca as Natica Kingi, obtained in the rubbish of a fishing boat at Cullercoats.

page 69 note 1 Traces of Red Crag Shells, Peoten opercularis, have also been found in the westerly extension of the Middle Glacial.

page 70 note 1 Dr. Jeffreys in working up the list of species in Mr. Lamplugh's paper omitted any reference to Mr. S. V. Wood's, and many other notices on the fauna.

page 71 note 1 I have used this horizon as a standard of comparison throughout, because of its accepted freedom from extraneous forms; and its richness in life offers sufficient ground for such reference.

page 71 note 2 The evidence of Preglacial Man in England is confined to the Red Crag, and consists, 1st, of a shell with a supposed human face carved thereon (H. Stopes); 2nd, perforations in sharks' teeth (E. Charlesworth); 3rd, a human jaw deeply stained with iron from Foxhall (Dr. Collyer, Anthrop. Review, 1867, p. 221); 4th, a spearhead from a Coprolite heap, locality unknown (R. J. Mortimer, now in Brit. Mus.); and lastly, a specimen of apparently cut bone in possession of Prof. Prestwich (Nature, vol. xvii. p. 105). Of these the shell is probably like many other Walton shells fancifully decorticated; 2nd, the perforations are shown by Prof. Hughes to be due to animal action; 3rd, the jaw is repudiated by nearly all scientific men as of Preglacial age, although certainly old, 4th, Mr. Mortimer's implement has been fashioned since the fossilization of the bone. Mr. Prestwich's I have not seen. The absence of Palæolithic Mammals and Implements in either Scotland or Ireland is strong eudence in favour of an equal absence of dry land there.

page 72 note 1 Nature, xxyii. p. 270.Google Scholar

page 73 note 1 Mr. Mackintosh, I think, is not very favourable to Molluscan evidence. I am afraid he is hardly a fair judge, as he divides this species into two genera.

page 74 note 1 The supposition that the lower cave earth here is Preglacial will not bear investigation.