ON A PIECE OF CHALK ' 81 



beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is appropriately 

 called the ''forest- bed." 



It is obvious that the chalk must have been upheaved 

 and converted into dry land, before the timber trees could 

 grow upon it. As the bolls of some of these trees are from 

 two to three feet in diameter, it is no less clear that the dry 

 land thus 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 additional evidence to the same effect is afforded 

 by the abundant remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippo- 

 potamuses, and 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 dark woods of w^hich the forest-bed is now the only 

 trace, it is impossible not to feel that they are as good evi- 

 dence 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 

 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 the 

 spoils of which have rejoiced your geologists. How long it 

 remained in that condition cannot be said; but, "the whirl- 

 igig of time brought 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. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus 



