xi.] SEA- ACTION ON CHALK. 269^ 



a great deal of them, probably, near river-mouths, and 

 by the force of violent currents, as the irregularity of 

 their lower bed proves : but there is hardly a plant or 

 animal found in the chalk itself, which is found in the 

 gravels, sands, or clays above it. The shells are all 

 new species ; unseen before in this planet. The vege- 

 tables, as far as we know them, are all different from 

 anything found in the chalk, or in the beds below it. 

 God Almighty, for His own good pleasure, has made 

 all things new. It is a very awful fact; but it is a 

 very certain one. Several times, in the history of our 

 planet, has the Lord God fulfilled the words of the 

 Psalmist : 



" Thou takest away their breath, they die, and 

 return again to their dust. 



" Thou sendest forth thy breath, they are made : 

 and thou renewest the face of the earth." 



But in no instance, perhaps, is the gulf so vast ; is 

 the leap from one world to another so sheer, as that 

 between the chalk and the London clay above it. 



But how do I know that there was a shore-line here ? 

 And how do I know that the chalk was covered with 

 sand-beds ? 



I know that there was a shore-line here, from this 

 fact. If you will look at the surface of the chalk, 

 where the sands and clays lie on it, you will find that 

 it is not smooth ; that the beds do not rest conform- 

 ably on each other, as if they had been laid down 

 quietly by successive tides, while the chalk below was 

 still soft mud. So far from it, the chalk must have 

 become hard rock, and have been exposed to the action 

 of the sea waves, for centuries, perhaps, before the 

 sands began to cover it. For you find the surface of 



