78 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



caves, constructed huts for shelter, and enclosed 

 pastures for cattle, and were endeavouring to cul- 

 tivate the soil. And a thousand years elapsed, 

 and I revisited the country, and a village had 

 been built on the sea-shore, and its inhabitants 

 supported themselves by fishing, and they had 

 erected a temple on the neighbouring hill, and 

 dedicated it to their patron saint. And the ad- 

 jacent country was studded with towns and vil- 

 lages ; and the downs were covered with flocks 

 and the valleys with herds, and the cornfields and 

 pastures were in a high state of cultivation, de- 

 noting an industrious and peaceful community. 

 And lastly, after an interval of many centuries, 

 I arrived once more, and the village was swept 

 away, and its site covered by the waves : but in 

 the valley and on the hills above the cliffs a 

 beautiful city appeared, with its palaces, its 

 temples, and its thousand edifices, and its streets 

 teeming with a busy population in the highest 

 state of civilisation; the resort of the nobles of 

 the land, the residence of the monarch of a 

 mighty empire." 



The period referred to in this passage is that 

 which intervenes between the time when the 

 Portland forests were flourishing and the present 

 day. That interval forms but a very small part 

 of the many and vast intervals during which the 

 various formations were deposited which are more 

 ancient than the era of the forests of Portland. 

 And yet it must itself have embraced a period of 

 vast duration. 



