468 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



disintegrated matter ? " The current which flows 

 from the north-west," remarks Sir C. Lyell, 

 " and bears against the eastern coast of England, 

 transports materials of various kinds. Aided 

 by the winds and waves, it undermines and 

 sweeps away the granite, gneiss, and trap rocks 

 and sandstone of Shetland, and removes the 

 gravel and loam of the cliffs of Holderness, 

 Norfolk, and Suffolk, which are between fifty 

 and two hundred feet in height, and which 

 waste at the rate of from one to six yards 

 annually. It also bears away in co-operation 

 with the Thames and the tides, the strata of 

 London clay on the coast of Essex and Sheppey. 

 The sea at the same time consumes the chalk 

 with its flints for many a mile continuously on 

 the shores of Kent and Sussex, commits annual 

 ravages on the fresh-water shells, capped by a 

 thick covering of chalk-flint gravel, in Hamp- 

 shire, and continually saps the foundations of 

 the Portland limestone. It receives besides, 

 during the rainy months, large supplies of 

 pebbles, sand, and mud, which numerous streams 

 from the Grampians, Cheviots,' and other chains 

 send down to the sea. To what regions, then, 

 is all this matter consigned ? It is not retained 

 in mechanical suspension by the waters of the 

 ocean, nor does it mix with them in a state of 

 chemical solution it is deposited somewhere, 



