58 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



produced by the action of streams and rivers flowing 

 through a country covered with forests, and swarm- 

 ing with animal life, the strata accumulated in 

 lakes and inland bays would teem with the 

 remains of terrestrial and fluviatile animals and 

 plants. 



The evidence which fossil remains afford of the 

 changes that have taken place in the organic and 

 inorganic kingdoms of nature, in periods antece- 

 dent to all human history and tradition, is, there- 

 fore, of the most positive and unequivocal character. 

 If, for example, a series of strata contains exclu- 

 sively relics of marine fishes, shells, corals, &c, it 

 is obvious that it must have been formed in the 

 sea ; the state of the organic remains, and the 

 nature of the species — whether littoral, i. e. inhabi- 

 tants of shallow waters; or pelagic, i.e. species 

 which lived in the depths of the ocean — affording 

 indications as to the circumstances under which 

 the formation of the strata took place. If an in- 

 termixture of land and fresh-water with marine 

 species occurs, it is evident that rivers and their 

 tributaries brought into the sea the spoils of the 

 land, and the relics of its inhabitants. On the 

 other hand, if an extensive tract is composed of 

 laminated clays, sands, and marls, teeming with 

 terrestrial and fluviatile shells, and containing 



