OF CREATION. 131 



they also include several turtles of various dimen- 

 sions. These were probably the inhabitants of islands 

 in a sea in which considerable deposits of mud and 

 sand were constantly forming, and rapidly accumulat- 

 ing over the edges of the dislocated strata of older 

 date. Perhaps, too, at this time there were occa- 

 sional but considerable outbursts of volcanic matter 

 from beneath the sea, helping to elaborate those re- 

 markable beds of gypsum and rock-salt abundant in 

 our own country in the beds of this age. During the 

 whole of the deposits there would appear to have 

 existed a tract of land to the east of England, chiefly 

 between France and Germany ; and this must have 

 been somewhat extensive. From it were obtained 

 many fragments of trees and plants, although rarely 

 in sufficient abundance to form even thin seams of 

 coal. The plants were unlike those of the car- 

 boniferous period, and they belong chiefly to the 

 tribe of which the Zamia is now an important and 

 characteristic type. 



We may then imagine a wide, low, sandy tract by 

 the sea-side, the hills and cliffs of limestone which 

 still rise boldly on the shores of the Avon, and in 

 Derbyshire and Yorkshire, having then been recently 

 elevated and forming a fringe to the coast line. In 

 some places, as in parts of Cheshire, between the Dee 

 and the Mersey, in some parts of Warwickshire, and 

 elsewhere where foot-prints have been left, slight 

 oscillations of level were probably going on, and the 

 line of coast was occasionally shifting. The sandy 

 flats thus laid bare, and not reached by the ordinary 

 level of high water, were of course traversed by the 

 ancient animals of that period ; but only a few faint 



