CHAPTER V.

ELEVATION OF STRATA ABOVE THE SEA--HORIZONTAL AND INCLINED STRATIFICATION.

Why the position of marine strata, above the level of the sea, should be referred to the rising up of the land, not to the going down of the sea--Upheaval of extensive masses of horizontal strata--Inclined and vertical stratification--Anticlinal and synclinal lines--Bent strata in east of Scotland--Theory of folding by lateral movement--Creeps--Dip and strike--Structure of the Jura--Various forms of outcrop--Rocks broken by flexure--Inverted position of disturbed strata--Unconformable stratification--Hutton and Playfair on the same--Fractures of strata--Polished surfaces--Faults--Appearance of repeated alternations produced by them--Origin of great faults.

_Land has been raised, not the sea lowered._--It has been already stated that the aqueous rocks containing marine fossils extend over wide continental tracts, and are seen in mountain chains rising to great heights above the level of the sea. Hence it follows, that what is now dry land was once under water. But if we admit this conclusion, we must imagine, either that there has been a general lowering of the waters of the ocean, or that the solid rocks, once covered by water, have been raised up bodily out of the sea, and have thus become dry land. The earlier geologists, finding themselves reduced to this alternative, embraced the former opinion, assuming that the ocean was originally universal, and had gradually sunk down to its actual level, so that the present islands and continents were left dry. It seemed to them far easier to conceive that the water had gone down, than that solid land had risen upwards into its present position. It was, however, impossible to invent any satisfactory hypothesis to explain the disappearance of so enormous a body of water throughout the globe, it being necessary to infer that the ocean had once stood at whatever height marine shells might be detected. It moreover appeared clear, as the science of Geology advanced, that certain spaces on the globe had been alternately sea, then land, then estuary, then sea again, and, lastly, once more habitable land, having remained in each of these states for considerable periods. In order to account for such phenomena, without admitting any movement of the land itself, we are required to imagine several retreats and returns of the ocean; and even then our theory applies merely to cases where the marine strata composing the dry land are horizontal, leaving unexplained those more common instances where strata are inclined, curved, or placed on their edges, and evidently not in the position in which they were first deposited.

Geologists, therefore, were at last compelled to have recourse to the other alternative, namely, the doctrine that the solid land has been repeatedly moved upwards or downwards, so as permanently to change its position relatively to the sea. There are several distinct grounds for preferring this conclusion. First, it will account equally for the position of those elevated masses of marine origin in which the stratification remains horizontal, and for those in which the strata are disturbed, broken, inclined, or vertical. Secondly, it is consistent with human experience that land should rise gradually in some places and be depressed in others. Such changes have actually occurred in our own days, and are now in progress, having been accompanied in some cases by violent convulsions, while in others they have proceeded so insensibly, as to have been ascertainable only by the most careful scientific observations, made at considerable intervals of time. On the other hand, there is no evidence from human experience of a lowering of the sea's level in any region, and the ocean cannot sink in one place without its level being depressed all over the globe.

These preliminary remarks will prepare the reader to understand the great theoretical interest attached to all facts connected with the position of strata, whether horizontal or inclined, curved or vertical.

Now the first and most simple appearance is where strata of marine origin occur above the level of the sea in horizontal position. Such are the strata which we meet with in the south of Sicily, filled with shells for the most part of the same species as those now living in the Mediterranean. Some of these rocks rise to the height of more than 2000 feet above the sea. Other mountain masses might be mentioned, composed of horizontal strata of high antiquity, which contain fossil remains of animals wholly dissimilar from any now known to exist. In the south of Sweden, for example, near Lake Wener, the beds of one of the oldest of the fossiliferous deposits, namely that formerly called Transition, and now Silurian, by geologists, occur in as level a position as if they had recently formed part of the delta of a great river, and been left dry on the retiring of the annual floods. Aqueous rocks of about the same age extend for hundreds of miles over the lake-district of North America, and exhibit in like manner a stratification nearly undisturbed. The Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope is another example of highly elevated yet perfectly horizontal strata, no less than 3500 feet in thickness, and consisting of sandstone of very ancient date.

Instead of imagining that such fossiliferous rocks were always at their present level, and that the sea was once high enough to cover them, we suppose them to have constituted the ancient bed of the ocean, and that they were gradually uplifted to their present height. This idea, however startling it may at first appear, is quite in accordance, as before stated, with the analogy of changes now going on in certain regions of the globe. Thus, in parts of Sweden, and the shores and islands of the Gulf of Bothnia, proofs have been obtained that the land is experiencing, and has experienced for centuries, a slow upheaving movement. Playfair argued in favour of this opinion in 1802; and in 1807, Von Buch, after his travels in Scandinavia, announced his conviction that a rising of the land was in progress. Celsius and other Swedish writers had, a century before, declared their belief that a gradual change had, for ages, been taking place in the relative level of land and sea. They attributed the change to a fall of the waters both of the ocean and the Baltic. This theory, however, has now been refuted by abundant evidence; for the alteration of relative level has neither been universal nor every where uniform in quantity, but has amounted, in some regions, to several feet in a century, in others to a few inches; while in the southernmost part of Sweden, or the province of Scania, there has been actually a loss instead of a gain of land, buildings having gradually sunk below the level of the sea.[46-A]

It appears, from the observations of Mr. Darwin and others, that very extensive regions of the continent of South America have been undergoing slow and gradual upheaval, by which the level plains of Patagonia, covered with recent marine shells, and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, have been raised above the level of the sea.[46-B] On the other hand, the gradual sinking of the west coast of Greenland, for the space of more than 600 miles from north to south, during the last four centuries, has been established by the observations of a Danish naturalist, Dr. Pingel. And while these proofs of continental elevation and subsidence, by slow and insensible movements, have been recently brought to light, the evidence has been daily strengthened of continued changes of level effected by violent convulsions in countries where earthquakes are frequent. There the rocks are rent from time to time, and heaved up or thrown down several feet at once, and disturbed in such a manner, that the original position of strata may, in the course of centuries, be modified to any amount.

It has also been shown by Mr. Darwin, that, in those seas where circular coral islands and barrier reefs abound, there is a slow and continued sinking of the submarine mountains on which the masses of coral are based; while there are other areas of the South Sea, where the land is on the rise, and where coral has been upheaved far above the sea-level.

It would require a volume to explain to the reader the various facts which establish the reality of these movements of land, whether of elevation or depression, whether accompanied by earthquakes or accomplished slowly and without local disturbance. Having treated fully of these subjects in the Principles of Geology[46-C], I shall assume, in the present work, that such changes are part of the actual course of nature; and when admitted, they will be found to afford a key to the interpretation of a variety of geological appearances, such as the elevation of horizontal, inclined, or disturbed marine strata, and the superposition of freshwater to marine deposits, afterwards to be described. It will also appear, in the sequel, how much light the doctrine of a continued subsidence of land may throw on the manner in which a series of strata, formed in shallow water, may have accumulated to a great thickness. The excavation of valleys also, and other effects of _denudation_, of which I shall presently treat, can alone be understood when we duly appreciate the proofs, now on record, of the prolonged rising and sinking of land, throughout wide areas.

To conclude this subject, I may remind the reader, that were we to embrace the doctrine which ascribes the elevated position of marine formations, and the depression of certain freshwater strata, to oscillations in the level of the waters instead of the land, we should be compelled to admit that the ocean has been sometimes every where much shallower than at present, and at others more than three miles deeper.

_Inclined stratification._--The most unequivocal evidence of a change in the original position of strata is afforded by their standing up perpendicularly on their edges, which is by no means a rare phenomenon, especially in mountainous countries. Thus we find in Scotland, on the southern skirts of the Grampians, beds of pudding-stone alternating with thin layers of fine sand, all placed vertically to the horizon. When Saussure first observed certain conglomerates in a similar position in the Swiss Alps, he remarked that the pebbles, being for the most part of an oval shape, had their longer axes parallel to the planes of stratification (See fig. 61.). From this he inferred, that such strata must, at first, have been horizontal, each oval pebble having originally settled at the bottom of the water, with its flatter side parallel to the horizon, for the same reason that an egg will not stand on either end if unsupported. Some few, indeed, of the rounded stones in a conglomerate occasionally afford an exception to the above rule, for the same reason that we see on a shingle beach some oval or flat-sided pebbles resting on their ends or edges; these having been forced along the bottom and against each other by a wave or current so as to settle in this position.

Vertical strata, when they can be traced continuously upwards or downwards for some depth, are almost invariably seen to be parts of great curves, which may have a diameter of a few yards, or of several miles. I shall first describe two curves of considerable regularity, which occur in Forfarshire, extending over a country twenty miles in breadth, from the foot of the Grampians to the sea near Arbroath.

The mass of strata here shown may be nearly 2000 feet in thickness, consisting of red and white sandstone, and various coloured shales, the beds being distinguishable into four principal groups, namely, No. 1. red marl or shale; No. 2. red sandstone, used for building; No. 3. conglomerate; and No. 4. grey paving-stone, and tile-stone, with green and reddish shale, containing peculiar organic remains. A glance at the section will show that each of the formations 2, 3, 4, are repeated thrice at the surface, twice with a southerly, and once with a northerly inclination or _dip_, and the beds in No. 1., which are nearly horizontal, are still brought up twice by a slight curvature to the surface, once on each side of A. Beginning at the north-west extremity, the tile-stones and conglomerates No. 4. and No. 3. are vertical, and they generally form a ridge parallel to the southern skirts of the Grampians. The superior strata Nos. 2. and 1. become less and less inclined on descending to the valley of Strathmore, where the strata, having a concave bend, are said by geologists to lie in a "trough" or "basin." Through the centre of this valley runs an imaginary line A, called technically a "synclinal line," where the beds, which are tilted in opposite directions, may be supposed to meet. It is most important for the observer to mark such lines, for he will perceive by the diagram, that in travelling from the north to the centre of the basin, he is always passing from older to newer beds; whereas, after crossing the line A, and pursuing his course in the same southerly direction, he is continually leaving the newer, and advancing upon older strata. All the deposits which he had before examined begin then to recur in reversed order, until he arrives at the central axis of the Sidlaw hills, where the strata are seen to form an arch or _saddle_, having an _anticlinal_ line B, in the centre. On passing this line, and continuing towards the S.E., the formations 4, 3, and 2, are again repeated, in the same relative order of superposition, but with a northerly dip. At Whiteness (see diagram) it will be seen that the inclined strata are covered by a newer deposit, _a_, in horizontal beds. These are composed of red conglomerate and sand, and are newer than any of the groups, 1, 2, 3, 4, before described, and rest _unconformably_ upon strata of the sandstone group, No. 2.

An example of curved strata, in which the bends or convolutions of the rock are sharper and far more numerous within an equal space, has been well described by Sir James Hall.[48-A] It occurs near St. Abb's Head, on the east coast of Scotland, where the rocks consist principally of a bluish slate, having frequently a ripple-marked surface. The undulations of the beds reach from the top to the bottom of cliffs from 200 to 300 feet in height, and there are sixteen distinct bendings in the course of about six miles, the curvatures being alternately concave and convex upwards.

An experiment was made by Sir James Hall, with a view of illustrating the manner in which such strata, assuming them to have been originally horizontal, may have been forced into their present position. A set of layers of clay were placed under a weight, and their opposite ends pressed towards each other with such force as to cause them to approach more nearly together. On the removal of the weight, the layers of clay were found to be curved and folded, so as to bear a miniature resemblance to the strata in the cliffs. We must, however, bear in mind, that in the natural section or sea-cliff we only see the foldings imperfectly, one part being invisible beneath the sea, and the other, or upper portion, being supposed to have been carried away by _denudation_, or that action of water which will be explained in the next chapter. The dark lines in the accompanying plan (fig. 64.) represent what is actually seen of the strata in part of the line of cliff alluded to; the fainter lines, that portion which is concealed beneath the sea level, as also that which is supposed to have once existed above the present surface.

We may still more easily illustrate the effects which a lateral thrust might produce on flexible strata, by placing several pieces of differently coloured cloths upon a table, and when they are spread out horizontally, cover them with a book. Then apply other books to each end, and force them towards each other. The folding of the cloths will exactly imitate those of the bent strata. (See fig. 65.)

Whether the analogous flexures in stratified rocks have really been due to similar sideway movements is a question of considerable difficulty. It will appear when the volcanic and granitic rocks are described, that some of them have, when melted, been injected forcibly into fissures, while others, already in a solid state, have been protruded upwards through the incumbent crust of the earth, by which a great displacement of flexible strata must have been caused.

But we also know by the study of regions liable to earthquakes, that there are causes at work in the interior of the earth capable of producing a sinking in of the ground, sometimes very local, but sometimes extending over a wide area. The frequent repetition, or continuance throughout long periods, of such downward movements seems to imply the formation and renewal of cavities at a certain depth below the surface, whether by the removal of matter by volcanos and hot springs, or by the contraction of argillaceous rocks by heat and pressure, or any other combination of circumstances. Whatever conjectures we may indulge respecting the causes, it is certain that pliable beds may, in consequence of unequal degrees of subsidence, become folded to any amount, and have all the appearance of having been compressed suddenly by a lateral thrust.

The "Creeps," as they are called in coal-mines, afford an excellent illustration of this fact.--First, it may be stated generally, that the excavation of coal at a considerable depth causes the mass of overlying strata to sink down bodily, even when props are left to support the roof of the mine. "In Yorkshire," says Mr. Buddle, "three distinct subsidences were perceptible at the surface, after the clearing out of three seams of coal below, and innumerable vertical cracks were caused in the incumbent mass of sandstone and shale, which thus settled down."[50-A] The exact amount of depression in these cases can only be accurately measured where water accumulates on the surface, or a railway traverses a coal-field.

When a bed of coal is worked out, pillars or rectangular masses of coal are left at intervals as props to support the roof, and protect the colliers. Thus in fig. 66., representing a section at Wallsend, Newcastle, the galleries which have been excavated are represented by the white spaces _a b_, while the adjoining dark portions are parts of the original coal-seam left as props, beds of sandy clay or shale constituting the floor of the mine. When the props have been reduced in size, they are pressed down by the weight of overlying rocks (no less than 630 feet thick) upon the shale below, which is thereby squeezed and forced up into the open spaces.

Now it might have been expected, that instead of the floor rising up, the ceiling would sink down, and this effect, called a "Thrust," does, in fact, take place where the pavement is more solid than the roof. But it usually happens, in coal-mines, that the roof is composed of hard shale, or occasionally of sandstone, more unyielding than the foundation, which often consists of clay. Even where the argillaceous substrata are hard at first, they soon become softened and reduced to a plastic state when exposed to the contact of air and water in the floor of a mine.

The first symptom of a "creep," says Mr. Buddle, is a slight curvature at the bottom of each gallery, as at _a_, fig. 66.: then the pavement continuing to rise, begins to open with a longitudinal crack, as at _b_: then the points of the fractured ridge reach the roof, as at _c_; and, lastly, the upraised beds close up the whole gallery, and the broken portions of the ridge are re-united and flattened at the top, exhibiting the flexure seen at _d_. Meanwhile the coal in the props has become crushed and cracked by pressure. It is also found, that below the creeps _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, an inferior stratum, called the "metal coal," which is 3 feet thick, has been fractured at the points _e_, _f_, _g_, _h_, and has risen, so as to prove that the upward movement, caused by the working out of the "main coal," has been propagated through a thickness of 54 feet of argillaceous beds, which intervene between the two coal seams. This same displacement has also been traced downwards more than 150 feet below the metal coal, but it grows continually less and less until it becomes imperceptible.

No part of the process above described is more deserving of our notice than the slowness with which the change in the arrangement of the beds is brought about. Days, months, or even years, will sometimes elapse between the first bending of the pavement and the time of its reaching the roof. Where the movement has been most rapid, the curvature of the beds is most regular, and the reunion of the fractured ends most complete; whereas the signs of displacement or violence are greatest in those creeps which have required months or years for their entire accomplishment. Hence we may conclude that similar changes may have been wrought on a larger scale in the earth's crust by partial and gradual subsidences, especially where the ground has been undermined throughout long periods of time; and we must be on our guard against inferring sudden violence, simply because the distortion of the beds is excessive.

Between the layers of shale, accompanying coal, we sometimes see the leaves of fossil ferns spread out as regularly as dried plants between sheets of paper in the herbarium of a botanist. These fern-leaves, or fronds, must have rested horizontally on soft mud, when first deposited. If, therefore, they and the layers of shale are now inclined, or standing on end, it is obviously the effect of subsequent derangement. The proof becomes, if possible, still more striking when these strata, including vegetable remains, are curved again and again, and even folded into the form of the letter Z, so that the same continuous layer of coal is cut through several times in the same perpendicular shaft. Thus, in the coal-field near Mons, in Belgium, these zigzag bendings are repeated four or five times, in the manner represented in fig. 67., the black lines representing seams of coal.[53-A]

_Dip and Strike._--In the above remarks, several technical terms have been used, such as _dip_, the _unconformable position_ of strata, and the _anticlinal_ and _synclinal_ lines, which, as well as the _strike_ of the beds, I shall now explain. If a stratum or bed of rock, instead of being quite level, be inclined to one side, it is said to _dip_; the point of the compass to which it is inclined is called the _point of dip_, and the degree of deviation from a level or horizontal line is called _the amount of dip_, or _the angle of dip_. Thus, in the annexed diagram (fig. 68.), a series of strata are inclined, and they dip to the north at an angle of forty-five degrees. The _strike_, or _line of bearing_, is the prolongation or extension of the strata in a direction _at right angles_ to the dip; and hence it is sometimes called the _direction_ of the strata. Thus, in the above instance of strata dipping to the north, their strike must necessarily be east and west. We have borrowed the word from the German geologists, _streichen_ signifying to extend, to have a certain direction. Dip and strike may be aptly illustrated by a row of houses running east and west, the long ridge of the roof representing the strike of the stratum of slates, which dip on one side to the north, and on the other to the south.

A stratum which is horizontal, or quite level in all directions, has neither dip nor strike.

It is always important for the geologist, who is endeavouring to comprehend the structure of a country, to learn how the beds dip in every part of the district; but it requires some practice to avoid being occasionally deceived, both as to the point of dip and the amount of it.

If the upper surface of a hard stony stratum be uncovered, whether artificially in a quarry, or by the waves at the foot of a cliff, it is easy to determine towards what point of the compass the slope is steepest, or in what direction water would flow, if poured upon it. This is the true dip. But the edges of highly inclined strata may give rise to perfectly horizontal lines in the face of a vertical cliff, if the observer see the strata in the line of their strike, the dip being inwards from the face of the cliff. If, however, we come to a break in the cliff, which exhibits a section exactly at right angles to the line of the strike, we are then able to ascertain the true dip. In the annexed drawing (fig. 69.), we may suppose a headland, one side of which faces to the north, where the beds would appear perfectly horizontal to a person in the boat; while in the other side facing the west, the true dip would be seen by the person on shore to be at an angle of 40 deg.. If, therefore, our observations are confined to a vertical precipice facing in one direction, we must endeavour to find a ledge or portion of the plane of one of the beds projecting beyond the others, in order to ascertain the true dip.

It is rarely important to determine the angle of inclination with such minuteness as to require the aid of the instrument called a clinometer. We may measure the angle within a few degrees by standing exactly opposite to a cliff where the true dip is exhibited, holding the hands immediately before the eyes, and placing the fingers of one in a perpendicular, and of the other in a horizontal position, as in fig. 70. It is thus easy to discover whether the lines of the inclined beds bisect the angle of 90 deg., formed by the meeting of the hands, so as to give an angle of 45 deg., or whether it would divide the space into two equal or unequal portions. The upper dotted line may express a stratum dipping to the north; but should the beds dip precisely to the opposite point of the compass as in the lower dotted line, it will be seen that the amount of inclination may still be measured by the hands with equal facility.

It has been already seen, in describing the curved strata on the east coast of Scotland, in Forfarshire and Berwickshire, that a series of concave and convex bendings are occasionally repeated several times. These usually form part of a series of parallel waves of strata, which are prolonged in the same direction throughout a considerable extent of country. Thus, for example, in the Swiss Jura, that lofty chain of mountains has been proved to consist of many parallel ridges, with intervening longitudinal valleys, as in fig. 71., the ridges being formed by curved fossiliferous strata, of which the nature and dip are occasionally displayed in deep transverse gorges, called "cluses," caused by fractures at right angles to the direction of the chain.[55-A] Now let us suppose these ridges and parallel valleys to run north and south, we should then say that the _strike_ of the beds is north and south, and the _dip_ east and west. Lines drawn along the summits of the ridges, A, B, would be anticlinal lines, and one following the bottom of the adjoining valleys a synclinal line. It will be observed that some of these ridges, A, B, are unbroken on the summit, whereas one of them, C, has been fractured along the line of strike, and a portion of it carried away by denudation, so that the ridges of the beds in the formations _a_, _b_, _c_, come out to the day, or, as the miners say, _crop out_, on the sides of a valley. The ground plan of such a denuded ridge as C, as given in a geological map, may be expressed by the diagram fig. 72., and the cross section of the same by fig. 73. The line D E, fig. 72., is the anticlinal line, on each side of which the dip is in opposite directions, as expressed by the arrows. The emergence of strata at the surface is called by miners their _outcrop_ or _basset_.

If, instead of being folded into parallel ridges, the beds form a boss or dome-shaped protuberance, and if we suppose the summit of the dome carried off, the ground plan would exhibit the edges of the strata forming a succession of circles, or ellipses, round a common centre. These circles are the lines of strike, and the dip being always at right angles is inclined in the course of the circuit to every point of the compass, constituting what is termed a qua-quaversal dip--that is, turning each way.

There are endless variations in the figures described by the basset-edges of the strata, according to the different inclination of the beds, and the mode in which they happen to have been denuded. One of the simplest rules with which every geologist should be acquainted, relates to the V-like form of the beds as they crop out in an ordinary valley. First, if the strata be horizontal, the V-like form will be also on a level, and the newest strata will appear at the greatest heights.

Secondly, if the beds be inclined and intersected by a valley sloping in the same direction, and the dip of the beds be less steep than the slope of the valley, then the V's, as they are often termed by miners, will point upwards (see fig. 74.), those formed by the newer beds appearing in a superior position, and extending highest up the valley, as A is seen above B.

Thirdly, if the dip of the beds be steeper than the slope of the valley, then the V's will point downwards (see fig. 75.), and those formed of the older beds will now appear uppermost, as B appears above A.

Fourthly, in every case where the strata dip in a contrary direction to the slope of the valley, whatever be the angle of inclination, the newer beds will appear the highest, as in the first and second cases. This is shown by the drawing (fig. 76.), which exhibits strata rising at an angle of 20 deg., and crossed by a valley, which declines in an opposite direction at 20 deg..[57-A]

These rules may often be of great practical utility; for the different degrees of dip occurring in the two cases represented in figures 74 and 75. may occasionally be encountered in following the same line of flexure at points a few miles distant from each other. A miner unacquainted with the rule, who had first explored the valley (fig. 74.), may have sunk a vertical shaft below the coal seam A, until he reached the inferior bed B. He might then pass to the valley fig. 75., and discovering there also the outcrop of two coal seams, might begin his workings in the uppermost in the expectation of coming down to the other bed A, which would be observed cropping out lower down the valley. But a glance at the section will demonstrate the futility of such hopes.

In the majority of cases, an anticlinal axis forms a ridge, and a synclinal axis a valley, as in A, B, fig. 62. p. 48.; but there are exceptions to this rule, the beds sometimes sloping inwards from either side of a mountain, as in fig. 77.

On following one of the anticlinal ridges of the Jura, before mentioned, A, B, C, fig. 71., we often discover longitudinal cracks and sometimes large fissures along the line where the flexure was greatest. Some of these, as above stated, have been enlarged by denudation into valleys of considerable width, as at C, fig. 71., which follow the line of strike, and which we may suppose to have been hollowed out at the time when these rocks were still beneath the level of the sea, or perhaps at the period of their gradual emergence from beneath the waters. The existence of such cracks at the point of the sharpest bending of solid strata of limestone is precisely what we should have expected; but the occasional want of all similar signs of fracture, even where the strain has been greatest, as at _a_, fig. 71., is not always easy to explain. We must imagine that many strata of limestone, chert, and other rocks which are now brittle, were pliant when bent into their present position. They may have owed their flexibility in part to the fluid matter which they contained in their minute pores, as before described (p. 35.), and in part to the permeation of sea-water while they were yet submerged.

At the western extremity of the Pyrenees, great curvatures of the strata are seen in the sea cliffs, where the rocks consist of marl, grit, and chert. At certain points, as at _a_, fig. 78., some of the bendings of the flinty chert are so sharp, that specimens might be broken off, well fitted to serve as ridge-tiles on the roof of a house. Although this chert could not have been brittle as now, when first folded into this shape, it presents, nevertheless, here and there at the points of greatest flexure small cracks, which show that it was solid, and not wholly incapable of breaking at the period of its displacement. The numerous rents alluded to are not empty, but filled with calcedony and quartz.

Between San Caterina and Castrogiovanni, in Sicily, bent and undulating gypseous marls occur, with here and there thin beds of solid gypsum interstratified. Sometimes these solid layers have been broken into detached fragments, still preserving their sharp edges (_g g_, fig. 79.), while the continuity of the more pliable and ductile marls, _m m_, has not been interrupted.

I shall conclude my remarks on bent strata by stating, that, in mountainous regions like the Alps, it is often difficult for an experienced geologist to determine correctly the relative age of beds by superposition, so often have the strata been folded back upon themselves, the upper parts of the curve having been removed by denudation. Thus, if we met with the strata seen in the section fig. 80., we should naturally suppose that there were twelve distinct beds, or sets of beds, No. 1. being the newest, and No. 12. the oldest of the series. But this section may, perhaps, exhibit merely six beds, which have been folded in the manner seen in fig. 81., so that each of them is twice repeated, the position of one half being reversed, and part of No. 1., originally the uppermost, having now become the lowest of the series. These phenomena are often observable on a magnificent scale in certain regions in Switzerland in precipices from 2000 to 3000 feet in perpendicular height. In the Iselten Alp, in the valley of the Lutschine, between Unterseen and Grindelwald, curves of calcareous shale are seen from 1000 to 1500 feet in height, in which the beds sometimes plunge down vertically for a depth of 1000 feet and more, before they bend round again. There are many flexures not inferior in dimensions in the Pyrenees, as those near Gavarnie, at the base of Mont Perdu.

_Unconformable stratification._--Strata are said to be unconformable, when one series is so placed over another, that the planes of the superior repose on the edges of the inferior (see fig. 83.). In this case it is evident that a period had elapsed between the production of the two sets of strata, and that, during this interval, the older series had been tilted and disturbed. Afterwards the upper series was thrown down in horizontal strata upon it. If these superior beds, as _d_, _d_, fig. 83., are also inclined, it is plain that the lower strata, _a_, _a_, have been twice displaced; first, before the deposition of the newer beds, _d_, _d_, and a second time when these same strata were thrown out of the horizontal position.

Playfair has remarked[60-A] that this kind of junction which we now call unconformable had been described before the time of Hutton, but that he was the first geologist who appreciated its importance, as illustrating the high antiquity and great revolutions of the globe. He had observed that where such contacts occur, the lowest beds of the newer series very generally consist of a breccia or conglomerate consisting of angular and rounded fragments, derived from the breaking up of the more ancient rocks. On one occasion the Scotch geologist took his two distinguished pupils, Playfair and Sir James Hall, to the cliffs on the east coast of Scotland, near the village of Eyemouth, not far from St. Abb's Head, where the schists of the Lammermuir range are undermined and dissected by the sea. Here the curved and vertical strata, now known to be of Silurian age, and which often exhibit a ripple-marked surface[60-B], are well exposed at the headland called the Siccar Point, penetrating with their edges into the incumbent beds of slightly inclined sandstone, in which large pieces of the schist, some round and others angular, are united by an arenaceous cement. "What clearer evidence," exclaims Playfair, "could we have had of the different formation of these rocks, and of the long interval which separated their formation, had we actually seen them emerging from the bosom of the deep? We felt ourselves necessarily carried back to the time when the schistus on which we stood was yet at the bottom of the sea, and when the sandstone before us was only beginning to be deposited in the shape of sand or mud, from the waters of a superincumbent ocean. An epoch still more remote presented itself, when even the most ancient of these rocks, instead of standing upright in vertical beds, lay in horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea, and was not yet disturbed by that immeasurable force which has burst asunder the solid pavement of the globe. Revolutions still more remote appeared in the distance of this extraordinary perspective. The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; and while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow."[60-C]

In the frontispiece of this volume the reader will see a view of this classical spot, reduced from a large picture, faithfully sketched and coloured from nature by the youngest son of the late Sir James Hall. It was impossible, however, to do justice to the original sketch, in an engraving, as the contrast of the red sandstone and the light fawn-coloured vertical schists could not be expressed. From the point of view here selected, the underlying beds of the perpendicular schist, _a_, are visible at _b_ through a small opening in the fractured beds of the covering of red sandstone, _d d_, while on the vertical face of the old schist at _a' a"_ a conspicuous ripple-mark is displayed.

It often happens that in the interval between the deposition of two sets of unconformable strata, the inferior rock has not only been denuded, but drilled by perforating shells. Thus, for example, at Autreppe and Gusigny, near Mons, beds of an ancient (paleozoic) limestone, highly inclined, and often bent, are covered with horizontal strata of greenish and whitish marls of the Cretaceous formation. The lowest and therefore the oldest bed of the horizontal series is usually the sand and conglomerate, _a_, in which are rounded fragments of stone, from an inch to two feet in diameter. These fragments have often adhering shells attached to them, and have been bored by perforating mollusca. The solid surface of the inferior limestone has also been bored, so as to exhibit cylindrical and pear-shaped cavities, as at _c_, the work of saxicavous mollusca; and many rents, as at _b_, which descend several feet or yards into the limestone, have been filled with sand and shells, similar to those in the stratum _a_.

_Fractures of the strata and faults._--Numerous rents may often be seen in rocks which appear to have been simply broken, the separated parts remaining in the same places; but we often find a fissure, several inches or yards wide, intervening between the disunited portions. These fissures are usually filled with fine earth and sand, or with angular fragments of stone, evidently derived from the fracture of the contiguous rocks.

The face of each wall of the fissure is often beautifully polished, as if glazed, and not unfrequently striated or scored with parallel furrows and ridges, such as would be produced by the continued rubbing together of surfaces of unequal hardness. These polished surfaces are called by miners "slickensides." It is supposed that the lines of the striae indicate the direction in which the rocks were moved. During one of the minor earthquakes in Chili, which happened about the year 1840, and was described to me by an eye-witness, the brick walls of a building were rent vertically in several places, and made to vibrate for several minutes during each shock, after which they remained uninjured, and without any opening, although the line of each crack was still visible. When all movement had ceased, there were seen on the floor of the house, at the bottom of each rent, small heaps of fine brickdust, evidently produced by trituration.

It is not uncommon to find the mass of rock, on one side of a fissure, thrown up above or down below the mass with which it was once in contact on the other side. This mode of displacement is called a shift, slip, or fault. "The miner," says Playfair, describing a fault, "is often perplexed, in his subterraneous journey, by a derangement in the strata, which changes at once all those lines and bearings which had hitherto directed his course. When his mine reaches a certain plane, which is sometimes perpendicular, as in A B, fig. 85., sometimes oblique to the horizon (as in C D, ibid.), he finds the beds of rock broken asunder, those on the one side of the plane having changed their place, by sliding in a particular direction along the face of the others. In this motion they have sometimes preserved their parallelism, as in fig. 85., so that the strata on each side of the faults A B, C D, continue parallel to one another; in other cases, the strata on each side are inclined, as in _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_ (fig. 86.), though their identity is still to be recognized by their possessing the same thickness, and the same internal characters."[62-A]

In Coalbrook Dale, says Mr. Prestwich[62-B], deposits of sandstone, shale, and coal, several thousand feet thick, and occupying an area of many miles, have been shivered into fragments, and the broken remnants have been placed in very discordant positions, often at levels differing several hundred feet from each other. The sides of the faults, when perpendicular, are commonly separated several yards, but are sometimes as much as 50 yards asunder, the interval being filled with broken _debris_ of the strata. In following the course of the same fault it is sometimes found to produce in different places very unequal changes of level, the amount of shift being in one place 300, and in another 700 feet, which arises, in some cases, from the union of two or more faults. In other words, the disjointed strata have in certain districts been subjected to renewed movements, which they have not suffered elsewhere.

We may occasionally see exact counterparts of these slips, on a small scale, in pits of fine loose sand and gravel, many of which have doubtless been caused by the drying and shrinking of argillaceous and other beds, slight subsidences having taken place from failure of support. Sometimes, however, even these small slips may have been produced during earthquakes; for land has been moved, and its level, relatively to the sea, considerably altered, within the period when much of the alluvial sand and gravel now covering the surface of continents was deposited.

I have already stated that a geologist must be on his guard, in a region of disturbed strata, against inferring repeated alternations of rocks, when, in fact, the same strata, once continuous, have been bent round so as to recur in the same section, and with the same dip. A similar mistake has often been occasioned by a series of faults.

If, for example, the dark line A H (fig. 87.) represent the surface of a country on which the strata _a b c_ frequently crop out, an observer, who is proceeding from H to A, might at first imagine that at every step he was approaching new strata, whereas the repetition of the same beds has been caused by vertical faults, or downthrows. Thus, suppose the original mass, A, B, C, D, to have been a set of uniformly inclined strata, and that the different masses under E F, F G, and G D, sank down successively, so as to leave vacant the spaces marked in the diagram by dotted lines, and to occupy those marked by the continuous lines, then let denudation take place along the line A H, so that the protruding masses indicated by the fainter lines are swept away,--a miner, who has not discovered the faults, finding the mass _a_, which we will suppose to be a bed of coal four times repeated, might hope to find four beds, workable to an indefinite depth, but first on arriving at the fault G he is stopped suddenly in his workings, upon reaching the strata of sandstone _c_, or on arriving at the line of fault F he comes partly upon the shale _b_, and partly on the sandstone _c_, and on reaching E he is again stopped by a wall composed of the rock _d_.

The very different levels at which the separated parts of the same strata are found on the different sides of the fissure, in some faults, is truly astonishing. One of the most celebrated in England is that called the "ninety-fathom dike," in the coal-field of Newcastle. This name has been given to it, because the same beds are ninety fathoms lower on the northern than they are on the southern side. The fissure has been filled by a body of sand, which is now in the state of sandstone, and is called the dike, which is sometimes very narrow, but in other places more than twenty yards wide.[64-A] The walls of the fissure are scored by grooves, such as would have been produced if the broken ends of the rock had been rubbed along the plane of the fault.[64-B] In the Tynedale and Craven faults, in the north of England, the vertical displacement is still greater, and has extended in a horizontal direction for a distance of thirty miles or more. Some geologists consider it necessary to imagine that the upward or downward movement in these cases was accomplished at a single stroke, and not by a series of sudden but interrupted movements. This idea appears to have been derived from a notion that the grooved walls have merely been rubbed in one direction. But this is so far from being a constant phenomenon in faults, that it has often been objected to the received theory respecting those polished surfaces called "slickensides" (see above, p. 61.), that the striae are not always parallel, but often curved and irregular. It has, moreover, been remarked, that not only the walls of the fissure or fault, but its earthy contents, sometimes present the same polished and striated faces. Now these facts seem to indicate partial changes in the direction of the movement, and some slidings subsequent to the first filling up of the fissure. Suppose the mass of rock A, B, C, to overlie an extensive chasm _d e_, formed at the depth of several miles, whether by the gradual contraction in bulk of a melted mass passing into a solid or crystalline state, or the shrinking of argillaceous strata, baked by a moderate heat, or by the subtraction of matter by volcanic action, or any other cause. Now, if this region be convulsed by earthquakes, the fissures _f g_, and others at right angles to them, may sever the mass B from A and from C, so that it may move freely, and begin to sink into the chasm. A fracture may be conceived so clean and perfect as to allow it to subside at once to the bottom of the subterranean cavity; but it is far more probable that the sinking will be effected at successive periods during different earthquakes, the mass always continuing to slide in the same direction along the planes of the fissures _f g_, and the edges of the falling mass being continually more broken and triturated at each convulsion. If, as is not improbable, the circumstances which have caused the failure of support continue in operation, it may happen that when the mass B has filled the cavity first formed, its foundations will again give way under it, so that it will fall again in the same direction. But, if the direction should change, the fact could not be discovered by observing the slickensides, because the last scoring would efface the lines of previous friction. In the present state of our ignorance of the causes of subsidence, an hypothesis which can explain the great amount of displacement in some faults, on sound mechanical principles, by a succession of movements, is far preferable to any theory which assumes each fault to have been accomplished by a single upcast or downthrow of several thousand feet. For we know that there are operations now in progress, at great depths in the interior of the earth, by which both large and small tracts of ground are made to rise above and sink below their former level, some slowly and insensibly, others suddenly and by starts, a few feet or yards at a time; whereas there are no grounds for believing that, during the last 3000 years at least, any regions have been either upheaved or depressed, at a single stroke, to the amount of several hundred, much less several thousand feet. When some of the ancient marine formations are described in the sequel, it will appear that their structure and organic contents point to the conclusion, that the floor of the ocean was slowly sinking at the time of their origin. The downward movement was very gradual, and in Wales and the contiguous parts of England a maximum thickness of 32,000 feet (more than six miles) of Carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian rock was formed, whilst the bed of the sea was all the time continuously and tranquilly subsiding.[65-A] Whatever may have been the changes which the solid foundation underwent, whether accompanied by the melting, consolidation, crystallization, or desiccation of subjacent mineral matter, it is clear from the fact of the sea having remained shallow all the while that the bottom never sank down suddenly to the depth of many hundred feet at once.

It is by assuming such reiterated variations of level, each separately of small vertical amount, but multiplied by time till they acquire importance in the aggregate, that we are able to explain the phenomena of denudation, which will be treated of in the next chapter. By such movements every portion of the surface of the land becomes in its turn a line of coast, and is exposed to the action of the waves and tides. A country which is undergoing such movement is never allowed to settle into a state of equilibrium, therefore the force of rivers and torrents to remove or excavate soil and rocky masses is sustained in undiminished energy.

FOOTNOTES:

[46-A] In the first three editions of my Principles of Geology, I expressed many doubts as to the validity of the alleged proofs of a gradual rise of land in Sweden; but after visiting that country, in 1834, I retracted these objections, and published a detailed statement of the observations which led me to alter my opinion in the Phil. Trans. 1835, Part I. See also the Principles, 4th and subsequent editions.

[46-B] See his Journal of a Naturalist in Voyage of the Beagle, and his work on Coral Reefs.

[46-C] See chapters xxviii. to xxxi. inclusive.

[48-A] Edin. Trans. vol. vii. pl. 3.

[50-A] Proceedings of Geol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 148.

[53-A] See plan by M. Chevalier, Burat's D'Aubuisson, tom. ii. p. 334.

[55-A] See M. Thurmann's work, "Essai sur les Soulevemens Jurassiques du Porrentruy, Paris, 1832," with whom I examined part of these mountains in 1835.

[57-A] I am indebted to the kindness of T. Sopwith, Esq., for three models which I have copied in the above diagrams; but the beginner may find it by no means easy to understand such copies, although, if he were to examine and handle the originals, turning them about in different ways, he would at once comprehend their meaning as well as the import of others far more complicated, which the same engineer has constructed to illustrate _faults_.

[60-A] Biographical account of Dr. Hutton.

[60-B] See above, p. 49. and section.

[60-C] Playfair, ibid.; see his Works, Edin. 1822, vol. iv. p. 81.

[62-A] Playfair, Illust. of Hutt. Theory, Sec. 42.

[62-B] Geol. Trans. second series, vol. v. p. 452.

[64-A] Conybeare and Phillips, Outlines, &c. p. 376.

[64-B] Phillips, Geology, Lardner's Cyclop. p. 41.

[65-A] See the results of the "Geological Survey of Great Britain;" Memoirs, vols. i. and ii., by Sir H. De la Beche, Mr. A. C. Ramsay, and Mr. John Phillips.