ON A PIECE OF CHALK 65 



of drift and boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the wal- 

 rus, now restricted to the extreme north, paddled about 

 where birds had twittered among the topmost twigs of 

 the fir-trees. How long this state of things endured we 

 know not, but at length it came to an end. The up- 

 heaved glacial mud hardened into the soil of modern 

 Norfolk. Forests grew once more, the wolf and the 

 beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant; and at 

 length what we call the history of England dawned. 



Thus you have within the limits of your own 

 county, proof that the chalk can justly claim a very much 

 greater antiquity than even the oldest physical traces of 

 mankind. But we may go further and demonstrate, 

 by evidence of the same authority as that which testi- 

 fies to the existence of the father of men, that the 

 chalk is vastly older than Adam himself. 



The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, imme- 

 diately upon his creation, and before the appearance 

 of Eve, was placed in the Garden of Eden. The prob- 

 lem of the geographical position of Eden has greatly 

 vexed the spirits of the learned in such matters, but 

 there is one point respecting which, so far as I know, 

 no commentator has ever raised a doubt. This is, 

 that of the four rivers which are said to run out of 

 it, Euphrates and Hiddekel are identical with the 

 rivers now known by the names of Euphrates and 

 Tigris. 



But the whole country in which these mighty rivers 

 take their origin, and through which they run, is com- 

 posed of rocks which are either of the same age as the 

 chalk, or of later date. So that the chalk must not only 

 have been formed, but, after its formation, the time 

 required for the deposit of these later rocks, and for 

 their upheaval into dry land, must have elapsed, before 



