154 HOLLOW LANE. 
formed over and around them, making a vast cemetery for the 
remains of the things that were. 
Again, looking at the regular stratification in the section of 
any chalk pit, he sees that all was tranquilly done, that there was 
no violent effort of Nature in it: the appearance is similar to that 
presented on digging through the mud left by the Nile, or any 
other inundating river; all goes to show that a certain kind of 
sediment was continually being deposited in a tranquil sea, This 
must have gone on for untold ages, for it was a slow process, and 
the chalk formation is known in some places to be 1000 feet thick. 
The process being finished, the sediment was partially hardened 
by its own weight, and was afterwards raised above the surface 
of the water and still further hardened by the direct heat of the 
sun. This upheaval was also a gradual movement; if it had 
been done violently by earthquakes or other volcanic action we 
should find the layers bent in various directions; but we do not. 
It was doubtless similar to what is now going on in the north 
of Scandinavia, where the land is known to be rising at the rate 
of (I believe) about four inches in acentury. During the up- 
heaval of the chalk. the various valleys were scooped out. The 
mode of the formation of valleys often forms a stumblingblock to 
geological readers, who are apt to think it was always done by a 
stream of water. No doubt it was sometimes, but the principal 
agent to be looked at is é¢dal action, and the continual dashing of 
the waves of a mighty sea against the newly born shores. As 
the land rose up inch by inch, this ceaseless oceanic action wore 
it partially away, leaving the harder parts intact: the direction 
of the valleys shows in what direction the dynamical force was 
applied, and also to some extent the angle of upheaval in the 
land : more of course would be worn away in front of the waves 
than at the side, and as the rising went on the sea retreated. 
From the character of the fossil remains found in the chalk the 
naturalist arrives at the conclusion that the climate of this part 
of the world was considerably warmer than it is now, for the 
species, not identical indeed with the fossil species, but of the 
same genera, are now known to live only in hot seas, e.g., the 
