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Image source: Scrope, George Poulett (1797-1876). Memoir on the geology of central France; including the volcanic formations of Auvergne, the Velay, and the Vivarais. London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827

Vulcan's Forge and Fingal's Cave

Volcanoes, Basalt, and the Discovery of Geological Time

Farey’s Geological Map of Derbyshire, 1811

Farey, John (1766-1826). General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire; with Observations on the Means of Their Improvement Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. London: Printed by B. McMillan, 1811-17.

John Farey’s map of Derbyshire is one of the very first true geological maps of England, and it was entirely original. Farey divided the rocks of Derbyshire into nine different formations; on the map they are numbered 1 to 9, with 9 being the lowest. Formation 8, colored peach on the map, is the formation that contains the three toadstone layers described by Whitehurst and Watson.

In the text, Farey lists all the synonyms he can gather for toadstone: amygdaloid, black-clay, black-stone, basaltes, bolder-stones, brown-stone, cat-dirt, channel, chert, clay, dun-stone, ferrilite, fiery-dragon, freestone, jew-stone, lava, rag-stone, trap, tuft-stone, and whin-stone. Some of these were known to be volcanic, but many others were not yet suspected to have a volcanic origin.

Torrens 1994, “Patronage and Problems: Banks and the Earth Sciences;” Challinor 1971, History of British Geology, pp. 91-2; Eyles, Joan M., “Farey, John,” in DSB 4:540-541.

Detail of geological formation map. Image source: Farey, John. General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire. Vol. 1, London: Printed by B. McMillan, 1811-17, pl. 2.

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