CHAP. x. " THE MAN IS MAD." 113 



bituminous. And see ! here is a bed of highly siliceous 

 stuff, and there is one of green clay, slightly sandy. On 

 taking a decomposed piece in the hand, and rubbing it 

 between the fingers, it feels greasy. 



" We are now among the low reefs, and look ! there 

 are multitudes of black, brilliant, quadrangular scales, and 

 numerous remains of fish, snouts innumerable, scales 

 of Holoptychius, pieces of fish jaws, teeth, spines, bones, 

 warty plates, and even plants. A little round the point, 

 almost in the line of a fault, under a rock, I found that 

 enormously big plate [of the Holoptychius], thirteen and 

 a half inches across. 



" While occupied in belabouring the rock to dig it 

 out, I was so meditative and so wondrously affected, 

 that some ' town bodies,' not understanding my object, 

 looked down upon me, and speaking to each other said, 

 'That man is mad!' But I was not so mad as they 

 thought me to be. 



"The dip is nearly north, and the fossils are most 

 abundant in the beds of rock close in with the land. I 

 march on over the remains of departed days, and medi- 

 tate among the tombs of deceased millions of living 

 creatures, tombs such as Hervey never dreamt of. As 

 I proceed, I pass successively cliffs innumerable, faults 

 innumerable, fossiliferous beds innumerable; for they 

 occur in detached patches, and are to be seen on the 

 very brink of the precipice. The sea is now dashing its 

 billowy spray unceasingly, and along the outer edge of 

 the breakers the crested cormorant and spotted divei 

 ply their ceaseless vocation. 



