THE LAPSE OF TIME. 109 



pouring down its waters to the sea through a thousand 

 centuries l . 



But Egypt and Switzerland are a long way off; 

 geologizing in a railway- cutting has been before now 

 a fatal employment ; and digging pits forty feet deep 

 into the mud of the Nile is an operation attended with 

 difficulties peculiar to itself. Here, however, in Torquay, 

 close at hand, we possess a register of time as compact, 

 as accessible, as genuine, as the Library of the British 

 Museum. Limestone, it is well known, is formed be- 

 neath the waters of the sea. When it appears above 

 the sea-level, it must have been upheaved from its 

 ocean-bed. How long a period must be allowed for the 

 hill which contains Kent's cavern to have been formed 

 by this double process, may be left for the present to 

 the imagination. How long a time elapsed before the 

 cavern was burst open or eaten out from the solid 

 limestone, we will not enquire. Thanks to the diligent 

 exploration of it; thanks to the unwearied courtesy of 

 its scientific curators 2 , the contents of the cavern, or at 

 least a portion of them, are now well known. Not only 

 do they embrace the remains of animals not now ex- 

 isting in England, but they embrace the remains of 

 animals long since lost to the globe. With these are 

 mingled the products of human intelligence, the weap- 

 ons of the savage. The cave-earth which, as well as 

 the stalagmite, contains these relics of a most remote 



1 Lyell, 'Elements of Geology,' p. 118, ed. 1865. 



2 Messrs. Pengelly and Vivian, resident at Torquay, acting members 

 of the distinguished committee of exploration. 



