OF CREATION. 



267 



highly probable, a deep sea at first covered all these 

 districts, and, owing to comparatively rapid and re- 

 peated elevation after the deposit of the chalk, the 

 change of depth destroyed, without allowing to emi- 

 grate, the species of animals of whatever kind that 

 inhabited the ancient sea, or whether a considerable 

 tract of land was formed in an east and west line, 

 cutting off communication between districts not far 

 removed in latitude, and extending, perhaps, from 

 Asia Minor far out into the Atlantic: these are 

 points which Geology does not, at present, enable us 

 to solve. All we know is the great fact of the ab- 

 sence of the chalk species in the tertiary beds, their 

 place being supplied by new species, for the most part 

 of very different organization. We thus have to 

 enter upon a new series of phenomena, when we turn 

 from the contemplation of the secondary to that of 

 the tertiary period. 



When, however, the time had elapsed, and the 

 change had taken place, and it must be repeated 

 that the interval, whether long or comparatively 

 short, was marked by the destruction of nearly the 

 whole marine creation, when, after this, the sea- 

 bottom in these parts of the world again received 

 accumulations of mud and shingle, it is not unlikely 

 that a great elevatory movement had already com- 

 menced. From the general direction of the subse- 

 quent disturbances which brought to light the Weal- 

 den district in England, and elevated the Alps and 

 the Caucasus, it is almost certain that the line of 

 that movement was, on the whole, east and west.* 



* The later, or tertiary movement, seems to have had a north-west and 

 south-east direction, as the former one, effecting the elevation of the oolites 



N 2 



