by a Reference to their organic Contents. 125 



gravel. To avert all suspicion as to these remains being due 

 to the destruction of recent animals, it may be observed, that 

 they consist principally of the bones of the elephant, the 

 rhinoceros, the stag, and the bear. Those of the horse, the 

 ox, and the dog are not unfrequent. The same character, 

 however, pervades the whole ; viz. the total absence of all 

 albuminous matter. 



With these bones, and acquired by the same means, dredg- 

 ing, are obtained the Nautili and Crustacea of the Sheppey 

 beds, to which, as well as to the bones, are attached, in con- 

 siderable numbers, the living Balani, O'streae, and Serpula?, 

 and also the recent Algae, Fiici, and Flustrae. 



From Heme Bay to the Reculvers, the bed of the sea 

 presents different, but analogous, results. On this line, the 

 mud and sand exposed by the retreat of the tides is stored 

 with the fossil molluscs of the sands and clays of the adjoin- 

 ing cliffs ; comprising, at the lowest estimate, twelve species, 

 some of which are extinct, and others are entire strangers to 

 the European seas. The shore affords to the collector a 

 larger quantity, and a better choice, than the cliffs themselves. 

 With these are largely associated the living Testacea of the 

 German Ocean. 



From the preceding statement it results, then, on a line of 

 coast more than twenty miles in length, and two or three in 

 breadth, and within the historic period, there have been, and 

 still continue to be, deposited the animal products of three 

 distinct periods; viz. the eocene, the last diluvial, and the 

 recent. The process of exhumation is slowly, but steadily, 

 advancing ; and, without calling in the aid of cycle and 

 epicycle, it may safely be inferred that a formation, of no 

 inconsiderable extent, is in rapid progress throughout the 

 estuary of the Thames, involving anachronisms, as to its 

 organic contents, of the most obvious and violent characters. 

 With equal force and fairness, the observation may be applied 

 to the whole eastern coast of England, to the shores of Europe 

 generally, and to those of America. It would be gratuitous 

 and unphilosophical, and totally opposed to the leading prin- 

 ciple of Mr. Lyell's work, not to assume that the causes now 

 in action must have prevailed under similar circumstances in 

 former ages : but it is not left to assumption ; the secondary 

 fossils in the crag attest the destruction of the chalk durinjy 

 the period when that comparatively recent deposit was in 

 progress ; and, indeed, it may be asked, what are all the vast 

 conglomerates of geology, but witnesses trumpet-tongued of 

 the antagonist forces of destruction and reconstruction which 

 have ever been contending on the surface of this earth. 



