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IHuwi f * I \ 'll COAL stone, the mountain limestone, and the coal series, arc all disturbed ; being elevated, undulated, and fractured, in various ways, as I have often already been com pelled to notice. And it must similarly be recollected, that a new order commences with the magnesian lime stone and the red marl; or that they are placed on the coal series and the inferior strata, in an uncon- formable position, while the lower substance also pre sents that conglomerate structure which, every where throughout nature, accompanies a new order in rocks. Hence the first three deposits have often been united, as forming one class, and as if they had under gone hut one disturbance, common to the whole. But from the former remarks on this subject (Chap ter xxi.), it is plain that the coal series is really dis tinct, in time and production, from the inferior strata; and hence cannot be always truly conformable to them, though the last general disturbance is common to the whole. If geologists have not, practically, always discovered the complicated relation between the coal series and these inferior strata, it is because this pre vious view of that necessity has not been taken. The examination is not easy; and where great disturbances occur under such circumstances, it is natural to be content with that which the previous opinions seem to point out as the real state of things. It is to be expected that future observations will confirm the facts thus stated as necessarily existing. With respect to other and remote countries, it is diificult to anticipate what the exact position of this series, if it really exists in other parts of the world, will be. That, at this particular period of the globe, it should have been produced in Britain, or here, and in a small portion of Europe, only, is not probable ; as it would form an exception of such magnitude and