Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/392

 very strongly the supposition that the forest has been submerged in consequence of a partial subsidence of the land.

I have confined myself in this paper almost entirely to a description of facts, without entering into any of the geological speculations which they suggest. But as theory is the great end of all inquiries of this nature, a Geological memoir may be considered incomplete unless the facts are examined with the view of discovering what legitimate deductions may be drawn from them. My examination of this district was however so cursory as to render it impossible for me to observe the facts with that patient and minute attention which could alone entitle me to make any theoretical inferences from them. Some of the most interesting theoretical views, the recital of the facts alone will suggest to every one accustomed to reason on Geological phenomena, for there are probably few places where more remarkable proofs are to be found of the great disturbances which have taken place in the strata since the time of their first deposition. To those geologists who may hereafter examine this district, I would recommend the singular accumulations of conglomerate, described § § 21. 23. 25, and particularly the detached hill of Tor Weston, and those near Tarr and Vellow, whether there is any evidence of some powerful cause acting on the surface, having left them in their present insulated position. The apparent alternation of the lyas strata with the red rock on the shore also deserves an attentive examination, and there appears to me an excellent opportunity in this district of investigating the history of that red rock about which so little is yet known, though occurring to so great an extent throughout England.