412 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



mammalia now inhabited such portions of the 

 former ocean-bed as were covered with vegetation 

 sufficient for their support ; and as these animals 

 died, their bones became enveloped in the accu- 

 mulations of mud and gravel, which were form- 

 ing in the bays and estuaries. 



This era also passed away — the elevatory move- 

 ments continued — other masses of the bed of the 

 chalk ocean, and of the wealden strata beneath, 

 became dry land — and at length those more recent 

 deposits containing the remains of the herbivorous 

 mammalia which were the last tenants of the 

 country. The oak, elm, ash, and other trees of 

 modern Europe, now sprang up where the groves 

 of palms and tree-ferns once nourished — the stag, 

 boar, and horse, ranged over the plains in which 

 were entombed the bones of the colossal reptiles — 

 and finally, Man appeared, and took possession of 

 the soil. 



At the present time, the deposits containing 

 the remains of the mammoth and other extinct 

 mammalia, are the sites of towns and villages, 

 and support busy communities of the human race ; 

 the Huntsman courses, and the Shepherd tends his 

 flocks on the elevated masses of the bottom 

 of the ancient chalk ocean — the Farmer reaps his 

 harvests upon the cultivated soil of the delta of 



