18 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



out of vast accumulations of reeds, somewhat resembling 

 in appearance, at least, the sugar-cane. To what a re- 

 mote and misty antiquity do such appearances lead us ? 

 To a time in which the district in which I am now 

 writing to you formed part of the delta of some immense 

 river which drained of its waters a widely -extended con- 

 tinent, the place of which is now occupied by the Atlan- 

 tic. Think how many ages must have elapsed before the 

 vegetable spoils of even the largest stream could have 

 formed the depositions of so extensive a coal measure : 

 how many more must have passed in which new accumu- 

 lations of strata settled above these to a depth of many 

 hundred feet settled so slowly, too, that each layer 

 formed a plain on which plants and animals flourished 

 and decayed. Continue the history till the immense 

 continent was slowly worn away, and the sea beyond, 

 enriched with the spoils of so many ages, became a scene 

 o^ earthquakes and volcanoes ; and then, after we have 

 marked in imagination the retiring of the waters, and 

 the ascent of a new continent from what had been the 

 profounder depths of the sea after we are lost in calcu- 

 lating the periods which must have elapsed ere the ascent 

 of one plutonic eminence was followed by that of another 

 antiquity, as it regards the human race, has but its be- 

 ginning. I find myself lost in immensity when I think 

 of such matters ; but I dare say you have quite enough 

 of geology for one letter. 



' The church of Linlithgow is a fine old building, 

 well-nigh as entire in the present day as it was four 

 centuries ago. In style it seems to hold a middle place 

 between the simple Xorman Gothic and the highly 

 ornamental Gothic of the reign of Henry VII. ; and 

 there is a chastity in the design of at least the interior, 

 which we may vainly look for in our modern imita- 



