The Mighty Deep 



Is this so new ? Have we not already in 

 former chapters found tokens of creatures which 

 once existed, of fossil remains embedded in 

 rock ? 



Yes ; but that was not the same. Fossil 

 remains are discovered in many kinds of stratified 

 rock. Here we are not concerned with separate 

 remains, buried in masses of chalk, but with the 

 actual substance of chalk itself. The mere build- 

 ing of it, as earlier told, closely resembles the 

 building of sandstone. Chalk, like sandstone, 

 was formed in past ages out of tiny particles, 

 carried by ocean-waves, dropped upon ocean's 

 bed, slowly consolidated, then gradually up- 

 heaved. Particles of 



Ah, there we reach the great distinction ! 



Not particles of inanimate mineral substances, 

 such as grains of quartz. No ; but particles 

 which once formed the habitation of living 

 creatures. More than this particles which once 

 shared in the Life of the beings with which for 

 the time they were in touch. Infinitesimal 

 specks, often so minute as to appear only as fine 

 dust to man's unaided sight ; yet real organic 

 remains, each one of which has been the home 

 of an active animal. 



A lump of chalk is a mass of densely packed 

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