CHAPTER I 

 THE ROCKS AND THEIR STORY 



WALKING along the sea shore, with all its varied interest, 

 many must from time to time have had their attention 

 attracted by the shells to be seen, not lying on the sands, 

 or in the pools, but firmly embedded in the solid rock of 

 the cliffs and of the rock ledges which run out on to the 

 shore, and have, it may be, wondered sometimes how they 

 got there. At almost any point of the coast of the Isle 

 of Wight, in bands of limestone and beds of clay, in cliffs 

 of sandstone or of chalk, we shall have no difficulty in 

 finding numerous shells. But it is not only in the rocks 

 of the sea coast that shells are to be found. In quarries 

 for building stone and in the chalk pits of the downs we 

 see shells in the rock, and may often notice them in the 

 stones of walls and buildings. How did they get there ? 

 The sea, we say, must once have been here. It must 

 have flowed over the land at some time. Now let us 

 think. We are going to read a wonderful story, written 

 not in books, but in the rocks. And it will be much more 

 valuable if we learn to read it ourselves, than if we are 

 just told what other people have made out. We know a 

 thing much better if we see the answers to questions for 

 ourselves than if we are told the answers, and take some 

 one else's word for it. And if we learn to ask questions 

 of Nature, and get answers to them, it will be useful in 

 all sorts of ways all through life. Now, look at the shells 

 in the rock of cliff and quarry. How are they there? 

 The sea cannot have just flowed over and left them. The 

 rock could not have been hard, as it is now, when they 



