THE DALES OF DERBYSHIRE. 61 
consideration. Indeed, in and about Monyash, these old 
sea lilies may be found and reconstructed, and shew no 
material difference from the sea lilies growing in the lagoons 
of the coral islands to-day. The same may be said of 
other organisms. What is taking place among the coral 
islands to-day, is precisely what took place when the 
material constituting the Derbyshire Dales was deposited. 
The corals, etc., may be seen growing just above low 
water mark, secreting carbonate of lime, and building up 
vast areas of limestone round the shores of the coral islands 
to-day. 
So again with the minute foraminifera, building up 
extensive beds of limestone in the Atlantic, these too 
have their exact counterpart in the limestone rock of 
Derbyshire. 
There are also other organisms besides corals, etc., which 
secrete and store up vast masses of limestone from the 
ocean, but these are very different from the corals, the 
forms of their calcareous shells being hardly distinguishable 
by the naked eye. Vast areas at the bottom of the 
Atlantic are being covered to-day with the remains of 
organisms. If we compare some section of limestone with 
microscopic mountings of the so-called Atlantic ooze, the 
resemblance is obvious. The organisms which occupy 
the beautiful shells live at the ocean surface, and when 
they die, their calcareous remains gradually fall to the 
bottom, and, in time, produce extensive accumulations of 
limestone. These, in process of time, become covered 
with material of other descriptions, and finally, the whole, 
by some subterranean force, is upheaved, bent and con- 
torted, cracked and split, and exposed to the action of rain 
and other atmospheric influences, which gradually break it 
down again, and cut it out into hills and valleys as we 
have seen. 
I will attempt to give some idea as to the arrangement 
