ON A PIECE OF CHALK 63 



The existence of these people is forgotten even in 

 the traditions of the oldest historical nations. The name 

 and fame of them had utterly vanished until a few 

 years back ; and the amount of physical change which 

 has been effected since their day, renders it more than 

 probable that, venerable as are some of the historical 

 nations, the workers of the chipped flints of Hoxne or 

 of Amiens are to them, as they are to us, in point of 

 antiquity. 



But, if we assign to these hoar relics of long- vanished 

 generations of men the greatest age that can possibly 

 be claimed for them, they are not older than the drift, 

 or boulder clay, which, in comparison with the chalk, 

 is but a very juvenile deposit. You need go no further 

 than your own sea-board for evidence of this fact. At 

 one of the most charming spots on the coast of Nor- 

 folk, Cromer, you will see the boulder clay forming a 

 vast mass, which lies upon the chalk, and must con- 

 sequently have come into existence after it. Huge 

 boulders of chalk are, in fact, included in the clay, and 

 have evidently been brought to the position they now 

 occupy, by the same agency as that which has planted 

 blocks of syenite from Norway side by side with them. 



The chalk, then, is certainly older than the boulder 

 clay. If you ask how much, I will again take you no 

 further than the same spot upon your own coasts for 

 evidence. I have spoken of the boulder clay and drift 

 as resting upon the chalk. That is not strictly true. 

 Interposed between the chalk and the drift is a com- 

 paratively insignificant layer, containing vegetable 

 matter. But that layer tells a wonderful history. It is 

 full of stumps of trees standing as they grew. Fir- 

 trees are there with their cones, and hazel-bushes with 

 their nuts ; there stand the stools of oak and yew trees, 



