Ancient Geological Changes in England. 303 



complete, there is no mark of violence at their junction ; and the 

 change, for any thing that appears to the contrary, may have 

 been effected, simply by slow and gradual depression, to a greater 

 depth than before, beneath the general level of the sea. 



*' 8. Operations of a different character now succeed. The 

 strata we have mentioned have all the characters of tranquil de- 

 position, and they must have been originally horizontal, or very 

 slightly inclined. But they are now found to be elevated unU 

 formly, though at a small angle, towards the west by north ; the 

 whole of the existing land in the east of England having been, 

 to all appearance continuously, uplifted in that direction. And, 

 l)esides this more extensive raising, the entire mass of the strata 

 has been in some places broken through by partial and more 

 violent heavinijs; which seem to have acted in continuous or 

 parallel lines, directed in a general view from east to west. In 

 the Isle of Wight, the chalk beds, which form the eastern ridge 

 of the island, — and along the Dorsetshire coast, all the strata, 

 from the chalk down to the Portland-stone, are nearly vertical. 

 In the chalk ridge, .on the west of Guildford, in Surrey, the 

 strata rise at an angle not much less than 45° ; and within the 

 ridge of the Hastings sands, not only inclined portions, but dis- 

 tinct fractures of the strata, are very frequent. 



*' Whether these fractures and upheavings took place entirely 

 beneath the sea, or after the strata had been in part, or wholly, 

 raised above its surface at once, or at distant epochs, we have no 

 facts that enable us to decide. It is indeed not impossible, 

 that the very act of rending the strata may have itself effected 

 their protrusion from beneath the waves. Nor can we tell how 

 long these operations were going on, though the appearance of 

 violence in many places seem to prove, that they were not so 

 gradual and tranquil as some geologists have supposed. 



'* Lastly^ Since the disclosure of the land thus broken up, 

 the surface appears to have been comparatively undisturbed ; 

 but it has been cut into by torrents, — worn away by the inces- 

 sant action of rains and frosts, — and, finally, its asperities soft- 

 ened down by the effects of vegetation ; — and thus it has been 

 gradually moulded into the forms which we now behold. 



*' If we have succeetled in explaining the facts referred to in 

 the preceding pages, there will now be no difficulty in answer- 



