OF CREATION. 219 



by the same cause as that which changed the nature 

 of the material deposited. These encrinites, there- 

 fore, were, at the same moment, destroyed and em- 

 balmed. The Bradford clay, as this bed is called, 

 was a very local deposit. 



The land, in whichever direction it extended at this 

 period, probably included a considerable area, though, 

 from the rarity of terrestrial fossils, it is pretty clear 

 that it did not stretch away towards the east in the 

 direction of the present continent of Europe. On the 

 contrary, the existence of marine but shallow-water 

 fossils on the coast of Normandy, nearly identical with, 

 and embedded under the same conditions as those in 

 England, would rather seem perhaps to point to the 

 south-west as the range in which we may expect to 

 trace it. This land was clothed with vegetation, con- 

 sisting chiefly of zamias, cycadese, and such plants, 

 and these, with ferns and coniferous trees, may have 

 at once sheltered and provided food for the inhabitants. 

 But what were these inhabitants ? In the deep 

 forests we might certainly have seen large beetles ; 

 near marshy places many flies abounded, and a few 

 small opossum-like quadrupeds tenanted the earth; 

 but, with regard to other inhabitants of land and of 

 the sea. our knowledge of existing animals would 

 hardly give very definite information. 



But analogy will still teach much that is interest- 

 ing and important even as to this point. Let us 

 imagine ourselves placed on a projecting headland or 

 hill of mountain limestone, anciently, as now, form- 

 ing a prominent and picturesque object, but com- 

 manding a view of the open sea, which then covered 

 the greater part of our island. Placed in imagina- 



L 2 



