WITH NOTES on the PHYSICAL FEATURES of the COUNTRY.

b8M 12

TO THE

Mhemory of his father

DR. SAMUEL P. WOODWARD, A.L.S. F.G.S.

AUTHOR OF A MANUAL OF THE MOLLUSCA,'

This Book is Dedicated :

PREFACE.

The publication of a book intended to give an account of the Geology of England and Wales requires a few prefatory remarks from the writer who has to deal with so comprehen

sive a subject.

When, in the year 1822, the Reverend W. D. Conybeare and William Phillips issued their “Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales,' the science had but commenced that rapid growth which has characterized it during the past fifty years. The philosophic teachings of Hutton, Playfair, and William Smith had as yet to be developed; and it was only after the true principles of Geology had been illustrated in the early writings of Scrope, and elaborated by De la Beche and Lyell, that its place among the Inductive Sciences was fully established.

No work has proved more useful to the field-geologist than that of Conybeare and Phillips ; and, on account of its being essentially a record of facts, it is much appreciated and valued at the present day. But the labours of half a century have materially altered our views of the nomenclature and classification of the rocks, and increased to a very large extent our knowledge of their life-history. The work of the pioneers has been followed up by an ever-increasing band of geologists; while the labours of the Geological Survey, and those of the Palæontographical Society, have tended very greatly to the development of the science, in the eluci