Physical Geography. 235 



probably a coral reef. It contains among other shells 

 many univalves which are unknown or rare in the Chalk, 

 such as Cyprcea, Oliva, &c., and along with these 

 Baculites and Belemnitella, both unknown in European 

 Eocene strata, though the latest intelligence from 

 Australia tells of a Belemnite in certain late Tertiary 

 strata there. Overlying the common white Chalk, this 

 Faxoe formation by its fauna also seems to be inter- 

 mediate in date to the ordinary Cretaceous and Eocene 

 strata. 



But without such data as these it is evident to any 

 reflective mind, that a great gap in time, unrepresented 

 by any sedimentary formations in England, took place 

 in our area between the deposition of the latest bed of 

 English Chalk, and that of the earliest Eocene stratum, 

 for, excepting a few Foraminifera, the species found in 

 the Chalk seem all to have been remodelled before our 

 Eocene epoch began, in so far that palaeontologists 

 recognise none of the species as identical, and before the 

 days of Darwin they would generally have been spoken 

 of as new creations. 



