ON A PIECE OF CHALK 69 



formed remained in the same condition for long ages. And 

 not only do the remains of stately oaks and well-grown firs 

 testify to the duration of this condition of things, but addi- 

 tional evidence to the same effect is afforded by the abundant 

 remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and 5 

 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 veritably carry 

 their owners about, and these great grinders crunch, in the 10 

 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 wall of cliffs at Cromer, 

 and whoso runs may read it. It tells us, with an authority 15 

 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 

 condition cannot be said ; but "the whirligig of time brought 20 

 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 of drift and boulder clay. 25 

 Sea beasts, such as the walrus, 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 

 upheaved glacial mud hardened into the soil of modern Nor- 30 

 folk. 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, 



