180 AN ENGLISH SHIRE. 



back in the history of the world than the later secondary 

 ages. Before that time, and for long oeons afterward, the 

 the portion of the earth's crust which now forms Sussex 

 had probably never emerged from the ocean. Britain 

 was then wholly represented by the primary regions of 

 Wales, Scotland, and Cornwall, forming a small archi- 

 pelago or group of rocky islands separated at some 

 distance by a wide passage from the nucleus of the young 

 European continent. But by the Wealden period, 

 the English Channel and the Eastern half of England 

 had been considerably elevated above the level of the sea. 

 Great rivers and lakes existed in this new continental 

 region, much like those which now exist in Sweden, 

 Northern Russia, and Canada; and the deposits of sand 

 or mud formed at their bottoms or in their estuaries 

 compose the chief part of the Wealden formation in 

 England. Without going fully into this question (some- 

 what complicated by frequent changes of level), it will 

 sufTice for our present purpose to say that the Wealden 

 consists, in the main, of two great divisions, which form, 

 so to speak, the floor, or lowest story, of the Sussex 

 formations. The first or bottom division is chiefly com- 

 posed of a rather soft and friable sandstone, which runs 

 through the whole Forest Ridges, and crops out in the 

 grey cliffs of Hastings and Fairlight. The second or 

 upper division is chiefly composed of a thick greasy clay, 

 which forms the soil in the greater part of the Weald, 

 and glides unobtrusively under the sea in the flat shore 

 on either side of Hastings, giving rise to the lowlands of 

 Pevensey Bay and the Romney Marshes. Why the 

 sandstone, which is really the bottom layer, should 



