"IN this, the fifth edition, many improvements and additions have been made. Of these, the most important consists of an account of the British Formations, showing the topographical range of each in succession, their lithological characters and the general nature of their fossils. This part of the work begins with Chapter V., and ends with Chapter XVII., and it constitutes a condensed Manual of British Stratigraphical Geology from the Laurentian to the latest Pliocene strata. The substance of these 227 pages was originally written by me for Blackie's Cyclopadia, and by the kind permission of these gentlemen, I have, with some
rearrangement and many additions, made much use of the matter printed in the article.
A leading feature in this part of the book is, that I have endeavoured to give a sketch of the Physical Geography of each successive Geological Epoch, so as to induce a scenic interest in the matter, beyond what can be gathered from mere lithological descriptions and lists of fossils, which, in the bald shape that they are sometimes presented to the reader, form merely the dry bones of geology.
By attentively reading and remembering these successive revolutions of ancient geographies, the reader will more or less realise the geological history of our country, and perceive those processes of physical evolution that, in the long lapse of time, gradually impressed on Britain its present geographical phase, which to most men seems so stable, but is, in reality, no more lasting than those which went
before." Ramsay A.C.