26 ON A PIECE OF CHALK i 



The chalk, then, is certainly older than the 

 boulder clay. If you ask how much, I will again 

 take you no further than the same spot upon your 

 own coasts for evidence. I have spoken of the 

 boulder clay and drift as resting upon the chalk. 

 That is not strictly true. Interposed between the 

 chalk and the drift is a comparatively insignifi- 

 cant layer, containing vegetable matter. But that 

 layer tells a wonderful history. It is full of stumps 

 of trees standing as they grew. Fir-trees are there 

 with their cones, and hazel-bushes with their 

 nuts ; there stand the stools of oak and yew trees, 

 beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is appro- 

 priately 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 re- 

 mains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, 

 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 elephan- 

 tine bones did veritably carry their owners about, 



