Page:The Geologist, volume 5.djvu/113

Rh beds can be traced through Hope on to Hathersege; and along the brook side, below Mam Tor, a good section is displayed, where they are seen abutting against the lower limestones. Along the stream at Hope good sections are also exposed, and they are seen in several places on the road to Bradwell. The bottom beds of the shales are intercalated with stony bands composed of the remnants of encrinite-stems and fragments of shells, and have been caused by the denudation of the limestone during their formation. The bottom shales are rich in Aviculo-pectens, Goniatites, Posidonia, etc., and the numerous iron-stone bands higher up the hill are rich in small goniatites, which are frequently found pyritized.

The most striking peculiarity of these shales is the fact that about a couple of miles from Castleton, where they rest upon the limestone, the bitumen which has steeped them has also percolated and oozed out into the limestone, turning it quite black, as also the fossils which, when split open, are often seen to contain a little globule of bitumen. Here we see the decomposed remains of two subdivisions separated by a great gulf of time, mingling together, both testifying to the great law of death which has prevailed since the dawn of life. When the fossils of the limestone are cleft open, they are often seen to contain a little globule of bitumen. Do not all the labours of the geologist prove that death is as much a natural law as that of birth, and that creation has been concomitant with extinction, as with individuals has been life and death?



This was found by a muleteer, in June, 1858, when passing the Cordillera from Catamarca to Copiapo, and brought by him to the latter city. He took it to be a rodado, or piece of silver-ore that had been broken from a vein and rounded by being washed with stones, say in the bed of a river; but on its being examined by Dr. David Garcia (a pupil of Domeyko), at Copiapo, he pronounced it to be a mass of meteoric iron.

Dr. D. Garcia is the manager of the "Transito" maquina or silver amalgamating works, and has this specimen in his possession. Mr. Abbott tells me it is considered a most interesting specimen, being so perfect (not a broken fragment), and whole,