124 



anxious no longer to occupy ground which other Memberg, 

 more competent than I am, were generously conceding to me. 



The period we have been considering is one of the last of the 

 many great changes which have taken place on this Globe of 

 ours, and the British Islands * in particiilar. It bears upon it 

 the same marks of the greatness and beneficence of the Creator 

 as those which have preceded it throughout aU time. In 

 contemplating the Coal formation we recognize the wisdom of 

 the arrangement which stored up the sun's heat for ages, to be 

 afterwards given out for man's benefit; yet who would think that 

 the Pebbles and Sand we have had under our consideration, 

 more particularly the latter, have contributed, and in no smaU 

 degree, to make the land fertile, and therefore to enable us to 

 supply ourselves more readily with the great necessaries of Hfe? 

 In my researches, when investigating the changes which have 

 taken place in our hills and vaUeys, and when contemplating 

 how varied must have been the physical aspect of the country 

 at different times, often have the words of the Poet Laureate 

 been present to my mind : 



There rolls the deep, where grew the tree, 

 O earth what changes hast thou seen ! 

 There where the long street roars, hath been 

 The stillness of the central sea. 



The hills are shadows, and they flow 

 From form to form and nothing stands ; 

 They melt like mists, the solid lands, 

 Lite clouds they shape themselves and go. 



Permit me to close these remarks with my humble testimony 

 in favour of the study of the Natural and Physical Sciences, 

 and to express a few thoughts which have occurred to me during 

 the progress of these investigations. When I have reflected 

 upon the mind which Grod has given us — when I have seen that 

 the great discoveries which have been made in science have 



* See Maps 39, 40, and 41, illustrating successive Eevolutions in Physical 

 Geography duiing the Post-Pliocene Period^ in Sir Charles Lyell's " Antiquity 

 of Man." 



