44 THE PAST CONDITION 



in the form in. which, it reaches us. It is, indeed, a 

 most remarkable fact, that it is quite an exceptional case 

 to find a skeleton of any one of all the thousands of 

 wild land animals that we know are constantly being 

 killed, or dying in the course of nature : they are 

 preyed on and devoured by other animals, or die in 

 places where their bodies are not afterwards protected by 

 mud. There are other animals existing in the sea, the 

 shells of which form exceedingly large deposits. You 

 are probably aware that before the attempt was made 

 to lay the Atlantic telegraphic cable, the Government 

 employed vessels in making a series of very careful ob- 

 servations and soundings of the bottom of the Atlantic ; 

 and although, as we must all regret, that up to the 

 present time that project has not succeeded, we have 

 the satisfaction of knowing that it yielded some most 

 remarkable results to science. The Atlantic Ocean 

 had to be sounded right across, to depths of several 

 miles in some places, and the nature of its bottom 

 was carefully ascertained. Well, now, a space of about 

 1,000 miles wide from east to west, and I do not 

 exactly know how many from north to south, but 

 at any rate 600 or 700 miles, was carefully examined, 

 and it was found that over the whole of that immense 

 area an excessively fine chalky mud is being deposited ; 

 and this deposit is entirely made up of animals whose 

 hard parts are deposited in this part of the ocean, and 

 are doubtless gradually acquiring solidity and becoming 

 metamorphosed into a chalky limestone. Thus, you 

 see, it is quite possible in this way to preserve unmis- 

 takable records of animal and vegetable life. When- 

 ever the sea-bottom, bv some of those imdulations of 



