278 Mr. Robberds on the former Level of the German Ocean, 



vegetable and animal tribes, which are at present never found 

 beyond the tropical regions, abounded then even in the highest 

 northern latitudes, for their vestiges have been discovered there 

 under such circumstances, as prove them to have been natives 

 of the districts in which they perished. Their remains are 

 either buried under, or associated with beds of sand and gravel, 

 which rise to between 300 and 400 feet above the present level 

 of the sea, and from which it is manifest, that the waters must 

 have again invaded these tracts, rising above the height at 

 which these memorials of their action still exist. By this ele- 

 vation of the ocean, the forests which had grown up during its 

 retreat, were largely overwhelmed, — many of the land animals, 

 which in the interval had taken possession of the woods and 

 pastures of the earth, were destroyed by the ascending flood, — 

 and various deposits of marine bodies were mixed throughout 

 the general mass of the detritus collected by the agitated 

 waves. The earliest of these relics constitute what is com- 

 monly termed the Crag stratum ; and in order " to favour a 

 given theory," the name of Diluvium has been employed to 

 designate the upper beds formed during the subsequent stages 

 of this operation. From the nature and extent of the ma- 

 terials thus accumulated, it is clear that this last residence of 

 the sea in these parts must have been of long duration ; and it 

 by no means follows, that the deposits of shells, which have 

 been found intermingled with them, must necessarily be con- 

 tinuous and contemporary. The marked prevalence of par- 

 ticular genera at different points — their apparently gradual 

 approximation towards a more perfect agreement with the 

 testaceous tribes of the present day — their diversified cha- 

 racters and dissimilar positions, — all indicate, that these de- 

 posits must have been the unconnected results of those suc- 

 cessive local changes which attended the access and departure 

 of the waters. 



Such is the course of events which I have traced in the geo- 

 logical records of this district. Mr. Taylor's theory and the 

 doctrines of the school to which he belongs, in effect admit 

 the outline of the series of operations here described ; they 

 allow that the ocean, in which the chalk was formed, had been 

 withdrawn, and that this was followed by a rising and then by 

 another falling of the waters ; but instead of connecting the 

 two last changes with the other natural revolutions manifested 

 in the structure of our globe, they ascribe them to a transient, 

 although universal inundation, effected by supernatural agency. 

 It would be useless to seek explanations of physical difficulties 

 from those who cut every knot by the aid of divine inter- 

 position. 



