166 EARL OF TERTJLAM — 



But when it is considered, as science has proved, both, by visible 

 evidence and closely-reasoned argument, that this immense bed of 

 material was formed out of deep-sea mud, and that this mud was 

 created by, or more properly speaking, out of the bodies of 

 creatures whose average diameter when living was from one- 

 hundredth to one - seven - thousandth of an inch, the field of 

 imagination grows at once to dimensions which it will be 

 impossible to adequately cover in the course of my short addi'ess 

 of this evening. 



As an illustration, which, though actually not so wonderful, 

 seems somehow to be more so, because one's mind can grasp it 

 more readily, I may mention that a few years ago, when travelling 

 near the Puy de Dome in the Auvergne, where there are 

 large limestone hills (we should call them mountains in this 

 country), my attention was called to the fact that these lime- 

 stone hills were practically composed of the fossilized bodies of 

 dead mayflies or their caddis-worms, which had been replaced, as 

 the bodies decayed, by exact reproductions, or, as one might describe 

 them, " casts," in limestone, of the perfect insects, the shapes of 

 which could, without very much difficulty, be exhibited by breaking 

 the lime stone with a steady hand. 



Scattered throughout the Chalk, also, are found various larger 

 fossils. 



At Sopwell, about a mile and a quarter from St. Albans, in the 

 process of digging for gravel, another curious formation has been 

 exposed. Firstly, we find a layer of gravel of varying thickness, 

 say 12 to 20 feet, and below this there lies a deep bed of sand, 

 perhaps 20 feet more, though, as we then reach water, we do not 

 know the full depth of this deposit. 



Between the sand and the gravel are occasionally found fossil 

 marine animals, such as sea-urchins, also a kind of bivalve shell 

 resembling to some extent an oyster shell, etc., and some of these 

 shells are found imbedded in the centres of flints which apparently 

 have formed round them after the death and fossilization of the 

 creature. In most cases these fossils, though not much worn, have 

 evidently been rolled about to a considerable extent in their fossil 

 state, which would apparently indicate that they were exposed to 

 the action of the sea for some time before being covered over by 

 the bed of gravel. 



This deposit of sand is found, in varying thickness, over a very 

 wide area in our County, and frequently at considerable depth. At 

 Sopwell it is regularly stratified, and the strata show a certain 

 inclination or "dip," which leads one to the conclusion that the 



