THE "HISTORY OF LIFE 197 



shells, broken shells and other objects. But we may 

 consider that the principal mass of the chalk is formed 

 of these microscopical creatures the foraminifera, 

 sometimes to the extent of being ninety per cent, 

 of the chalk deposit. The creatures which secrete 

 these shells exist to this day in our seas, living in 

 the water, born there, growing there, dying there- 

 then their shells gradually fall to the bottom ; 

 and thus are they forming a deposit which will 

 be some day the chalk cliffs of a world utterly 

 different in aspect from our present world. What 

 wonderful fossils will be found in those chalk cliffs ! 

 Imagine the museums of these coming days with glass 

 cases which hold ironclad steamships with fossil bones 

 of the captain and crew, the cannon and guns of 

 to-day -an exhibition of horror to the intelligent being 

 of that coming time, and telling the record of the 

 barbarism of the present ! But it is when we 

 consider the great thickness of this chalk formation, 

 often 800 feet, and that it has been built up of 

 these microscopical creatures ; that a time must be 

 allowed for the life history of each shell, and conse- 

 quently a time for the enormous deposit, a time for the 

 upheaval of the bottom of the sea to become dryland 

 the chalk formation and when we further reflect on 

 the subsequent deposition of hundreds of strata upon 

 it, sometimes deposited in sea water, sometimes in 

 fresh water, it is then the mind absolutely stands 

 aghast at the stupendous period required to account for 

 the geological history of the world, a time which 

 appears to us to be eternal. 



Corals and sea-urchins, mollusks, some species of 

 which were allied to the squids of to-day, must have 



