IMMENSE ANTIQUITY. 29 



setting the tertiary beds of Alum Bay upriglit against it ; 

 wliicli even, after the Age of Ice, thrust up the Isle of 

 Moen in Denmark, and the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, 

 entangling tlie boulder clay among the chalk how long 

 ago ? Long enough ago, in Trinidad at least, to allow water 

 probably the estuary waters of the Orinoco to saw all the 

 upheaved layers off at the top into one Hat sea-bottom once 

 more, leaving as projections certain harder knots of rock, 

 such as the limestones of Mount Tamana ; and, it may be, 

 the curious knoll of hard clav rock under which nestles the 

 town of San Fernando. Long enough ago, also, to allow that 

 whole sea-bottom to be lifted up once more, to the height, in 

 one spot, of a thousand feet, as the lowland which occupies 

 six- sevenths of the Isle of Trinidad. Long enough ago, 

 ao'ain, to allow that lowland to be sawn out into hills and 

 valleys, ridges and gulleys, which are due to the action of 

 Colonel George Greenwood's geologic panacea, " Eain and 

 Elvers," and to nothing else. Long enough ago, once more, 

 for a period of subsidence, as I suspect, to follow the period of 

 upheaval ; a period at the commencement of which Trinidad 

 was perhaps several times as large as it is now, and has 

 gradually been eaten away by the surf, as fresh pieces of the 

 soft cliffs have been brought, by the sinking of the land, face 

 to face with its slow, but sure destroyer. 



And how long ago began the epoch the very latest which 



