A DAY IN A QUARRY. 91 



to understand only a tithe of what they witness, 

 there are few things so exhilarating or so worthy 

 of occupying the hours of a holiday as fossil-hunting 

 in a favourable spot. 



After some hours spent in climbing, jumping, 

 rolling slabs and blocks of stone over, hammering 

 and chiselling, brightened by snatches of conversa- 

 tion, we proposed a rest for the double purpose of 

 eating our luncheon and talking over our " finds." 



Various specimens of coral had been secured ; for 

 the Wenlock limestone is in many parts almost a 

 mass of coral, probably an ancient coral reef, like 

 those which stretch for hundreds of miles in the 

 Southern Seas, whose wondrous history Charles 

 Darwin so graphically wrote. What we call coral 

 is really the skeleton or solid support of the tiny 

 creatures which formed the substance. Mr. Darwin 

 believed that coral islands and reefs are gradually 

 built up by colonies of minute animals, until by 

 alterations in the level of the sea the structure rises 

 above the surface of the water, and then, by the 

 drifting of seeds and in other ways, vegetation 

 sprouts out, trees grow, and at length man himself 

 finds a home upon the island which has been formed. 



Darwin's theory, like all others, has had to be tried 

 by the test of accumulating facts and knowledge, 

 and, as some affirm, is found wanting. I have not 

 space now for even a brief account of the controversy 

 which this question has originated, but I shall deal 

 with it in another chapter when I come to write more 

 exclusively upon corals. Let it suffice to say at 

 present that it would be no discredit to Darwin 



