A DAY IN A QUARRY. 89 



hastened over two or three fields in the direction of 

 the grey escarpment which was visible at some little 

 distance ahead. On reaching it we found a lime 

 quarry of considerable size. We at once entered it, 

 and quietly surveyed the steep walls of rock of a 

 greyish white colour, mixed with bands or layers 

 of darker argillaceous shale, which rose up all 

 round us to a height of from thirty to forty feet. 

 We were completely shut off from the outer world, 

 and in the quarry intense stillness reigned. 



" I can hardly expect you to enter into my feelings," 

 said I to Baxter ; " but what a magnificent spectacle 

 this is to one who knows the history of these rocks ! 

 These deposits tell, in language too plain to be 

 misunderstood, that over them once rolled the 

 great sea, and in every handful of that lime are 

 the gravestones of the former inhabitants of the 

 ocean which myriads of ages ago murmured here." 



u Then this limestone," said my companion, " is 

 largely made up of the shells of creatures which used 

 to live in the sea, is it ? " 



"Yes. Most limestones have been deposited in 

 deep seas. This particular quarry belongs to what 

 are called the Wenlock beds, which are nearly two 

 thousand feet thick, and are crowded with organic 

 remains. You may imagine the length of time it 

 must have taken for that thickness of lime to be 

 slowly deposited by the continual dropping of shells 

 and the gradual labours of tiny corals. Above the 

 Wenlock series are the Ludlow beds, about two 

 thousand feet thick, while below are the Woolhope 

 formations, three thousand feet in thickness. These, 



