356 THE CAUSES OF THE xi 



we must look at this past creation. Suppose that 

 we were to sink a vertical pit through the floor 

 beneath us, and that I could succeed in making 

 a section right through in the direction of New 

 Zealand, I should find in each of the different 

 beds through which I passed the remains of 

 animals which I should find in that stratum and 

 not in the others. First, I should come upon 

 beds of gravel or drift containing the bones of 

 large animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, 

 and cave tiger. Rather curious things to fall 

 across in Piccadilly ! If I should dig lower still, 

 I should come upon a bed of what we call the 

 London clay, and in this, as you will see in 

 our galleries up stairs, are found remains of 

 strange cattle, remains of turtles, palms, and large 

 tropical fruits ; with shell-fish such as you see the 

 like of now only in tropical regions. If I went 

 below that, I should come upon the chalk, and 

 there I should find something altogether different, 

 the remains of ichthyosauria and pterodactyles, 

 and ammonites, and so forth. 



I do not know what Mr. Godwin Austin would 

 say comes next, but probably rocks containing 

 more ammonites, and more ichthyosauria and 

 plesiosauria, with a vast number of other things ; 

 and under that I should meet with yet older 

 rocks containing numbers of strange shells and 

 fishes ; and in thus passing from the surface to the 

 lowest depths of the earth's crust, the forms of 



