400 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



there are beds probably contemporaneous and of some 

 interest; and these seem to render probable the vi- 

 cinity of land where they were in process of forma- 

 tion; but whatever may have been the condition at 

 that time, it soon became that of a marine district 

 rapidly sinking; and the deep sea of the chalk period 

 soon afterwards covered, with few exceptions, the 

 whole land of Europe. The inhabitants of the sea 

 hitherto known from the fossils of the chalk period 

 are chiefly such as required deep water; and the 

 effect being uniform over great tracts, the cause no 

 doubt was the same, and acted in the same way. 



The great and important want of continuity of the 

 upper beds of the chalk with the beds deposited 

 upon them in most parts of the world, cannot but be 

 looked upon also as a most instructive fact, proving, 

 it would seem, that, after the materials of these beds 

 had been accumulated, there was a long interval dur- 

 ing which they had time to consolidate, and become 

 partially worn away. The deposits at that time pro- 

 bably formed the ocean-bed of a great eastern ocean; 

 while the main land of the period, if there existed 

 any in these latitudes, occupied a tracfr extending to- 

 wards the west and south, but scarcely reaching even 

 the most westerly point of Europe. 



At length, however, and fifthly, another change 

 took place, the ocean-bed became elevated, land ap- 

 peared near the south-western parts of England, ex- 

 tending, perhaps, to central France and Italy; and 

 it may be that there was then commenced a great 

 east and west movement of elevation, which, acting 

 for a long time and by many successive efforts, has 

 produced the important mountain chains of the east- 



