64 ON A PIECE OF CHALK 



beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is appropriately 

 called the "forest-bed." 



It is obvious that the chalk must have been up- 

 heaved and converted into dry land, before the timber 

 trees could grow upon it. As the boles of some of these 

 trees are from two to three feet in diameter, it is no less 

 clear that the dry land this formed remained in the 

 same condition for long ages. And not only do the re- 

 mains of stately oaks and well-grown firs testify to the 

 duration of this condition of things, but additional evi- 

 dence to the same effect is afforded by the abundant 

 remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotomuses 

 and other great wild beasts, which it has yielded to the 

 zealous search of such men as the Rev. Mr. Gunn. 



When you look at such a collection as he has formed, 

 and bethink you that these elephantine bones did veri- 

 tably carry their owners about, and these great grinders 

 crunch, in the dark woods of which the forest-bed is 

 now the only trace, it is impossible not to feel that they 

 are as good evidence of the lapse of time as the annual 

 rings of the tree-stumps. 



Thus there is a writing upon the walls of cliffs at 

 Cromer, and whoso runs may read it. It tells us, with 

 an authority which cannot be impeached, that the 

 ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and 

 remained dry land, until it was covered with forest, 

 stocked with the great game whose spoils have rejoiced 

 your geologists. How long it remained in that condi- 

 tion cannot be said ; but " the whirligig of time brought 

 its revenges" in those days as in these. That dry land, 

 with the bones and teeth of generations of long-lived 

 elephants, hidden away among the gnarled roots and 

 dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the 

 bottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge masses 



