CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 303 



Here then we have undeniable proofs of another deposition of regular 

 strata, formed by a sea in a state of tranquillity, having been broken up 

 and almost annihilated by some sudden and powerful catastrophe. 



9. The Diluvian accumulations of sand, gravel, clay, pebbles, &c. (p. 275) 

 promiscuously distributed over the surface of the country, and occa- 

 sionally including the remains of Elephants, and other land quadrupeds, 

 ( p. 283), afford also conclusive evidence, that some general irruption of 

 water has taken place subsequently to the deposition of the most recent 

 of the regular strata. 



To the same cause may hkewise be ascribed, the present form and 

 appearance of the surface of the earth, the rounded outhnes of our hills, 

 and the vallies, coombes, and sinuosities, by which they are intersected. 

 For if there be any one fact thoroughly estabhshed by geological in- 

 vestigations, it is the circumstance, that our globe has been overwhelmed 

 at a comparatively recent period, by the waters of a transient deluge*. 



From the facts that have been presented to oiir notice, the following 

 inferences naturally arise : 



\stly. That the strata composing the county of Sussex, have been 

 formed at different periods, by successive depositions at the bottom of 

 tranqviil seas f . 



2dly. That the waters which deposited these formations were in- 

 habited by shell-fish, zoophytes, fishes, &c., the greater part of which were 

 not only essentially distinct from any that are known in a recent state, 

 but many of them are confined to certain deposits. 



Sdly. That one of these formations (the Tilgate beds) contain the re- 



* Vide Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, (translated by Jameson), p. 171. Mr. Greenough'& 

 Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology, p. 155. Professor BucEand on the 

 Quartz Rock, 8fc. Geological Transactions, Vol. v. p. 544. 



t The absence of all traces of land animals and vegetables in these beds, does not however 

 appear to warrant the inference, that the former were not then in existence. For if we suppose 

 that after the deposition of the Iron sand, the sea retired, and the surface of that formation be- 

 came clothed with vegetation, and inhabited by animals ; may it not be presumed, that if the ap- 

 proach of the next ocean was gradual, the advance and retrocession of its waves might destroy 

 all traces of the land and its productions, before the water covered the surface to a sufficient 

 depth, to allow of the tranquil deposition of the Weald clay? This remark equally applies ta 

 the other secondary formations. 



