194 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. [ix 



the same effect is afforded by the abundant remains of 

 elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and other great 

 wild beasts, which it has yielded to the zealous search of 

 such men as the Kev. Mr. Gunn. 



, When you look at such a collection as he has formed, 

 and bethink you that these elephantine bone3 did veritably 

 carry their owners about, and these great grinders crunch, 

 in the dark woods of which the forest-bed is now the 

 only trace, it is impossible not to feel that they are as 

 good evidence of the lapse of time as the annual rings 

 of the tree-stumps. 



Thus there is a "writing upon the w r all of cliffs at 

 Cromer, and whoso runs may read it. It tells us, w r ith 

 an authority which cannot be impeached, that the 

 ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and 

 remained dry land, until it w r as covered with forest, 

 stocked with the great game whose spoils have rejoiced 

 your geologists. How long it remained in that condition 

 cannot be said : but " the whirligig of time brought its 

 revenges" in those days as in these. That dry land, 

 with the bones and teeth of generations of long-lived 

 elephants, hidden away among the gnarled roots and dry 

 leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the bottom 

 of the icy sea, which covered it with huge masses of 

 drift and boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, 

 now restricted to the extreme north, paddled about where 

 birds had twittered among the topmost twigs of the fir- 

 trees. How long this state of things endured we know 

 not, but at length it came to an end. The upheaved 

 glacial mud hardened into the soil of modern Norfolk. 

 Forests grew once more, the w r olf and the beaver re- 

 placed the reindeer and the elephant ; and at length 

 what we call the history of England dawned. 



Thus you have, within the limits of your own county, 

 proof that the chalk can justly claim a very much 



