We have already seen that geologists have been led by the study of fossils to the all-important generalisation that the vast series of the Fossiliferous or Sedimentary Rocks may be divided into a number of definite groups or “formations,” each of which is characterised by its organic remains.  It may simply be repeated here that these formations are not properly and strictly characterised by the occurrence in them of any one particular fossil.  It may be that a formation contains some particular fossil or fossils not occurring out of that formation, and that in this way an observer may identify a given group with tolerable certainty.  It very often happens, indeed, that some particular stratum, or sub-group of a series, contains peculiar fossils, by which its existence may be determined in various localities.  As before remarked, however, the great formations are characterised properly by the association of certain fossils, by the predominance of certain families or orders, or by an assemblage of fossil remains representing the “life” of the period in which the formation was deposited.

Fossils, then, enable us to determine the age of the deposits in which they occur.  Fossils further enable us to come to very important conclusions as to the mode in which the fossiliferous bed was deposited, and thus as to the condition of the particular district or region occupied by the fossiliferous bed at the time of the formation of the latter.  If, in the first place, the bed contain the remains of animals such as now inhabit rivers, we know that it is “fluviatile” in its origin, and that it must at one time have either formed an actual riverbed, or been deposited by the overflowing of an ancient stream.  Secondly, if the bed contain the remains of shellfish, minute crustaceans, or fish, such as now inhabit lakes, we know that it is “lacustrine,” and was deposited beneath the waters of a former lake.  Thirdly, if the bed contain the remains of animals such as now people the ocean, we know that it is “marine” in its origin, and that it is a fragment of an old sea-bottom.

We can, however, often determine the conditions under which a bed was deposited with greater accuracy than this.  If, for example, the fossils are of kinds resembling the marine animals now inhabiting shallow waters, if they are accompanied by the detached relics of terrestrial organisms, or if they are partially rolled and broken, we may conclude that the fossiliferous deposit was laid down in a shallow sea, in the immediate vicinity of a coast-line, or as an actual shore-deposit.  If, again, the remains are those of animals such as now live in the deeper parts of the ocean, and there is a very sparing intermixture of extraneous fossils (such as the bones of birds or quadrupeds, or the remains of plants), we may presume that the deposit is one of deep water.  In other cases, we may find, scattered through the rock, and still in their natural position,