Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/18

14

A third foreigner might travel from the coast of Dorset to the coast of Yorkshire, over elevated plains of oolitic limestone, or of chalk; without a single mountain, or mine, or coal-pit, or any important manufactory, and occupied by a population almost exclusively agricultural.

Let us suppose these three strangers to meet at the termination of their journeys, and to compare their respective observations; how different would be the results to which each would have arrived, respecting the actual condition of Great Britain. The first would represent it as a thinly peopled region of barren mountains; the second, as a land of rich pastures, crowded with a flourishing population of manufacturers; the third, as a great corn-field, occupied by persons almost exclusively engaged in the pursuits of husbandry.

These dissimilar conditions of three great divisions of our country, result from differences in the geological structure of the districts through which our three travellers have been conducted. The first will have seen only those north-western portions of Britain, that are composed of rocks belonging to the primary and transition series: the second will have traversed those fertile portions of the new red Sandstone formation which are made up of the detritus of more ancient rocks, and have beneath, and near them, inestimable treasures of mineral coal: the third will have confined his route to wolds of limestone, and downs of chalk, which are best adapted for sheep-walks, and the production of corn.