4 GEOLOGY OF THE 'WAEREN. 



of our land reared one of their largest temples. All the chalk ranges 

 of England commence at Salisbury Plain, radiating from it to the 

 north-east, east, south-east, and south-west. What we see here is the 

 termination of the east range, known generally as the North Downs, 

 forming the Northern boundary of the Weald of Kent. The precipitous 

 and abrupt appearance of the cliffs will cause any thoughtful mind to 

 ask the question — Did the range over extend farther seaward than it 

 does now? As the clifTa appear to be continually undergoing degrada- 

 tion, there are certainly grounds for supposing that it did. Cast your 

 eyes across towards France, and when the atmosphere is in a favour- 

 able condition you will behold a similar termination of chalk hills on 

 the opposite coast, just as abrupt, just as steep. The geologist will 

 toll yon that in ages gone by the cliffs of Albion were united with 

 those of Gaul, that our counti-y was not then an island, but a portion 

 of some large continent ; and that the separation has been effected by 

 a gradual sinking of tho land, and the incessant dashing of the ocean 

 waves on a barrier too feeble to resist their mighty influence. Tho 

 increased shallowness of the water in the line between these cliffs, 

 compared with that of the sea on either side of it, supports this view, 

 as does also the fact that the other formations found here beneath the 

 chalk occur there in the same order. This hypothesis accounts at 

 once for the mode in which our present island became populated with 

 its various wild inhabitants, as well as with the lions, elephants, mon- 

 keys, hyaenas, &c., the remains of which are disinterred by the 

 geologist. They crossed over, not by water, but by the land that ia 

 now submerged. 



The Chalk is tho uppermost of the secondary series of rocks, and is 

 a very extensive deposit, being found not only in England but in various 

 parts of Europe between us and the Black Sea. It is formed chiefly 

 of the remains of shell fish and microscopic animals, being found to 

 consist of carbonate of lime ; and was evidently deposited in a tranquil 

 deep sea, far from land, as tho nature of the animal remains testifies. 

 The climate, too, was a much more equable one then than it is at pre- 

 sent, and much warmer ; very few vegetable remains of any kind are 

 found in it. The fossils found in it in this locality are abundant, but I 

 have not as yet worked them much ; here we may get, however, 

 numerous Tei-ehratulx, Sea Eggs of sevei-al kinds, Anaiicliytes, Mi- 

 craster, and Cidaris, with their detached spines, and any quantity of 

 shells and fragments of rnocerami; the last-named, together with 

 Bliynclwnellce, are very abundant in the detached blocks at the foot 

 of tho cliffs near the Coast-guard Houses. 



Besides the Chalk, we have here the Upper Greensand, Gault, and 

 Lower Greensand. The strata, as you would observe better in going 

 along the Lower Sandgate Eoad, are not horizontal, but inclined at a 

 small angle and dip to the east, cropping up, yon will notice, from 

 beneath the superincumbent formations as you go westward. Very 

 little, indeed, of the Upper Greousaud is to be seen ; there are a few 



