ix.] ON A PIECE OF CHALK. 169 



to an end. The upheaved glacial mud hardened into the soil of 

 modern Norfolk. Forests grew once more, the wolf and the 

 beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant ; and at length 

 what we call the history of England dawned. 



Thus you have, within the limits of your own county, proof 

 that the chalk can justly claim a very much greater antiquity 

 than even the oldest physical traces of mankind. But we may 

 go further and demonstrate, by evidence of the same authority 

 as that which testifies to the existence of the father of men, that 

 the chalk is vastly older than Adam himself. 



The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immediately upon 

 his creation, and before the appearance of Eve, was placed in the 

 Garden of Eden. The problem of the geographical position of 

 Eden has greatly vexed the spirits of the learned in such 

 matters, but there is one point respecting which, so far as I 

 know, no commentator has ever raised a doubt. This is, that of 

 the four rivers which are said to run out of it, Euphrates and 

 Hiddekel are identical with the rivers now known by the 

 names of Euphrates and Tigris. 



But the whole country in which these mighty rivers take their 

 origin, and through which they run, is composed of rocks which 

 are either of the same age as the chalk, or of later date. So 

 that the chalk must not only have been formed, but, after its 

 formation, the time required for the deposit of these later rocks, 

 and for their upheaval into dry land, must have elapsed, before 

 the smallest brook which feeds the swift stream of &quot; the great 

 river, the river of Babylon.&quot; began to flow. 



Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which need not 

 be strengthened, though if time permitted I might indefinitely 

 increase its quantity, compels you to believe that the earth, from 

 the time of the chalk to the present day, has been the theatre of 

 a series of changes as vast in their amount, as they were slow in 

 their progress. The area on which we stand has been first sea 

 and then land, for at least four alternations ; and has remained in 

 each of these conditions for a period of great length. 



