Formalize

a. To modify; to formulate. -v. n. To affect formality. (R.). Formalizer, n. A formalist. Formally, adv. In a formal manner. Forma paupe'ris. ( Law.) See IN FORMA PAUPER IS. Formate,n. (Chem.) Same as formiate. Forma'tion, n. [Fr.; L. Lat. formatio.] Act of creating or causing to exist; the operation of collecting things together, or shaping and giving form.-Generation; production; manner in which a thing is formed. Formations, Geological. A term used in speaking of certain large groups of rocks which form parts of geological strata. The geological record is usually cla ified into five main divisions: (1) The Archæan or Azoic; (2) the Primary or Palæozoic; (3) the Secondary or Mesozoic; (4) the Tertiary or Cainozoic; and (5) the Quaternary, or Recent Periods. These great divisions are further separated into systems, each system into formations, each formation into groups, and each group into single zones or horizons. The word formation, however, is used in a wider sense than this, and has been variously applied by geologists to different rock groups, now to the main divisions above named, now to smaller groups of stones, now to rocks of special kinds, as clay-slates, sandstones, limestones, . The oldest stratified formations are ma es of gnei ic and crystalline schistose rocks which lie beneath the earliest fo il-bearing formations, and belong perhaps to widely different geological periods. Their wide separation in time from the rocks that rest on them is shown by their strong unconform ability to all the latter formations. They are everywhere crystalline in condition, occur in crumpled, often vertical, beds, and yield much of the materials out of which the later formations were made. In the U. S. they include the thick strata known as the Lauren tian. These contain the problematic Eozoon ( q. v.), together with beds of graphite, limestone, and iron ore, from which it has been deduced that they represent a period in which life existed, though this is extremely doubtful. Above them, in the Lake Huron region, lie beds of slate, quartz, limestone, ., 10,000 to 20,000 feet thick, which have received the name of Huronian. No fo ils have been found in them; and, though seemingly much younger than the Lauren tian rocks, they are cla ed with the Archæan formations. All the older sedimentary formations bearing remains of organic life are cla ed as Primary or Palæozoic. They extend to the top of the Permian system, and include the Cam brian, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. The Cam brian rocks of North America are divided by geologists into three formations: (1) the Acadian, a ma of grey and dark shales with some sandstones of 2,000 feet in thickne , and (2) the Potsdam, which attains a width of 5,600 in Newfoundland, but thins away westward and southward to a thickne of about 300 feet. This formation is rich in early forms of animal life. The Silurian system in the United States and Canada spreads over a vast territory, and is divided into the following formations. Lower Silurian: (1) Canadian, (2) Trenton, embracing limestones which are rich in fo ils. Upper Silurian: (1) Niagara, (2) Salina, (3) Lower Helderberg. These are composed of sandstones, limestones, and shales, and contain, in addition to many species of trilobites, mollusks, ., the earliest forms of fish which occur in the upper formations. Insects also make their first appearance in the Silurian rocks. feet along the Appal a chi an region. They po e some characteristic genera of fish. The Upper Devonian of Canada yields a vast arenaceous deposit termed the Gaspé Sandstones, of over 7,000 feet in thickne , which contains abundant plant remanins, the oldest of the terrestrial floras of any importance. In these ferns and lycopods largely predominate; there are a few conifers, and from a locality on Lake Erie a fragment of dicotyledonous wood has been described, the oldest in existence. These vegetable layers are thick enough in some localities to form thin seams of coal-the pioneers of the coal formation. It is in the Chemung, the upper formation of the Devonian system, that the mineral oil and gas of Pennsylvania are chiefly found, the drills descending to a coarse sandstone called the oil-sand, which is so open in texture that a vast amount of oil can be held in the spaces between the grains. Next above the Devonian lies the great Carboniferous system, important from its vast accumulations of coal. Its formations include the Sub carboniferous (the Mountain or Carboniferous limestone), and the Carboniferous, the coal bearing strata proper. The sub carboniferous is noted for extensive limestone strata interspersed with thin shales and sandstones over the Mi i ippi basin, and for sandstones and shales, with little limestone, in the East. In southwest Virginia the limestones become over 2,000 feet in thickne , while in southwestern Illinois they have a thickne of 1,200 to 1,500 feet. Upon them lie the formations of the coal measures, whose basic formation in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania is a conglomerate of silicious gravel and sand. This extends through the Mi i ippi valley, though thinning out westward. Upon it lies the coal formation, consisting of sandstone, shale, clay and limestone, with occasional strata of coal, and commonly beneath them a bed of fire clay. Of the total thickne of the formation about 1 foot in 40 is usually good coal, though in the more productive parts the proportion rises to 1 foot in 20. The life of this period was one of dense forests or jungles of cryptogamous plants, consisting of ferns, equiseta and lycopods, with some examples of conifers. Animal life included nearly all the forms found in the earlier periods, together with the first of the land vertebrates, frog-like batrachians of great bulk. Lying upon the upper level of the coal formation are the Permian beds, the upper level of the Salæozoic geological division, and cla ed by some authors as a portion of the Carboniferous division. It is identified by its fo il remains, being otherwise not clearly distinguishable from the formations below. Among these are the earliest of the reptiles, the outcome of the batrachians of the lower beds, and the beginning of this great reptilian domain of life. The Mesozoic age of geology comprises three systems of strata, the Tria ic, Jura ic and Cretaceous, which are divided into numerous formations, differing considerably in different parts of the earth, as indeed is the case with all the geological systems. The Tria ic rocks of the U. S. are mostly sandstones, conglomerates and shales, with occasional thin beds of limestone and some coal. The reptilian fauna increase here greatly in number and variety, while the earliest mammals make their appearance, in the form of insectivorous marsupials. The Jura ic formation, which succeeds the Tria ic, is distinguished by its huge dinosaurian reptiles, creatures with short fore limbs, whose habit was to stand erect on the hind limbs and tail, yet some of which were of immense size. From them the buds are supposed to have evolved, their earliest known forms appearing in this geological age. The Cretaceous formation, named from its great outcrop of chalk in England, is composed of very varied beds in America, the Lower Cretaceous being sub-divided by Hill into the Trinity, Fred ericks burg, and Washita groups, and the upper by Cook into the Dakota, Colorado, Montana, Laramie. They present no new features of organic development other than a continued appearance of new reptilian forms, and of the first traces of the higher mammals in what are claimed to be upper Laramie beds. Above the Cretaceous appears the third division of geological time, the Tertiary, made up of three important formations, the Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene. These are distinguished as being the formations in which mammalian life attained its great development, pa ing upward from low types to those that lie just below man in organization. The rocks vary greatly in character, there being no strata of almost continental extent and uniformity, as in the Silurian age, but a diversity much like that of modern formations. The Quaternary beds, which overlie these, are strictly modern in deposition, and contains indications of human life throughout most of their extent. Of their formations the most important is the glacial-beds of ground, clay, ., evidently due to a recent great extension of the polar ice and its slow withdrawal. Above these lie the Cham plain formation, the strata that succeeded the vanishing of the polar ice, and the Recent, distinguished by the presence of mammals of existing species, and the soils which form the present agricultural surface of the earth. Formative, a. Giving form; having the power of giving form; plastic; serving to form. (Gram.) Derivative. -n. (Gram.) That which serves merely to give form, and is no part of the radical, as a prefix or termination used in forming a word or a cla of words. Form'er, n. He who forms; a maker; an author. -That which gives form; a pattern; a dub-around which The Devonian System of the United States and Canada is divided into Lower and Upper Devonian, and com- prises a number of formations, of which the Portage and Chemung rocks are from 2,000 to 3,000 feet thick in the Cat skill Mountains and thicken to 5,000 or 6,000 the paper of cartridges is lapped.