280 THOUGHTS IN A GRAVEL-PIT. [xi, 



the Beacon Hill, and many a mile to the south-east- 

 ward even down into Kent, and stretched also over 

 Winchfield and Dogmersfield hither. 



What broke them up ? What furrowed out their 

 steep side-valleys ? What formed the magnificent 

 escarpment of the Beacon Hill, or the lesser one of 

 Finchamstead Ridges ? What swept away all but a 

 thin cap of them on the upper part of Dogmersfield 

 Park, another under Winchfield House ; another at 

 Bearwood, and so forth ? 



The convulsions of a third world ; more fertile in 

 animal life than those which preceded it : but also, 

 more terrible and rapid, if possible, in its changes. 



Of this third world, the one which (so to speak) 

 immediately preceded our own, we know little yet. 

 Its changes are so complicated that geologists have as 

 yet hardly arranged them. But what we can see, I will 

 sketch for you shortly. 



A great continent to the south England, probably 

 an island at the beginning of the period, united to the 

 continent by new beds the Mammoth ranging up to 

 where we now stand. 



Then a period of upheaval. The German Ocean 

 becomes dry land. The Thames, a far larger river 

 than now, runs far eastward to join the Seine, and the 

 Ehine, and other rivers, which altogether flow north- 

 ward, in one enormous stream, toward the open sea 

 between Scotland and Norway. 



And with this, a new creation of enormous quad- 

 rupeds, as yet unknown. Countless herds of elephants 

 pastured by the side of that mighty river, where now 

 the Norfolk fisherman dredges their teeth and bones 

 far out in open sea. The hippopotamus floundered in 



