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geologists, to the men of the ham^ner, who have been described as 

 collectors of petrified shells and bones. G' ology, I know, Js not 

 a very popular study, and thereby men miss a source of very great 

 pleasure. Let me just say in passing that though so generally 

 looked upon as dry and uninteresting, it is nevertheless a science 

 more replete with wonderment, more abounding in mysterious 

 puzzles and problems, fuller of fairy tales, giant deeds, and mar- 

 vellous transformations, than any other subject known to the 

 student of nature. And yet so few take it up. To me I confess 

 it has long been a marvel that here in Folkestone, a district so rich 

 in geological material, that men and women come yearly from all 

 parts to enrich their geological knowledge, the local students could 

 be numbered more than once on the fingers of one hand. Our 

 museum will show you that we are frequently coming across the 

 skeletons of mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and other 

 creatures, which must have died on the spot where we find them 

 possibly 50,000 or 60,000 years ago. Yet though we have 

 five or six times started winter classes in geology, on only one 

 occasion did the number of students amount to six. This is a 

 digression. Now to our task — How was this ice age discovered ? 



One great lesson learned by the geologist, and indeed by every 

 naturalist, is the prevalence of orderly arrangement in nature — the 

 reign of law. The very mat rials composing the crust of the earth, 

 as far down as we can poi-sibly obtain any knowledge of them 

 whatever, instead of being (as they seem to be) scattered at ran- 

 dom, are arranged each one in a certain position, relative to the 

 rest, all according to one definite plan. There are two great 

 divisions of these rocks, viz. : (a) Those formed by the agency of 

 heat, e.a„ lava, basalt, granite, &c., known as Igneous rocks; 

 ib) those which, like^ limestones and sandstones, were formed in 

 water (these are called Aqueous rocks). Leaving the former out of 

 sight for our present purpose, we find that the rocks formed in 

 water are more or less perfectly stratified, i.e., arranged in layers 

 one above the other, as we may see in the Lower Eoad. Our 

 diagram illustrates this. Here is chalk, oolite, carboniferous, old 

 red sandstone, &c. No one of these, in whatever part of the world 

 it may be found, ever occurs out of its proper place. Nowhere can 

 you find oolite or lias above the chalk ; no greensand or London 

 clay ever occurs below the coal rocks, &c. Hence we can classify 

 them all according to their relative ages, those at the bottom being 

 of course the oldest. Moreover, each particular set of beds or strata 

 contains within it the plants and animals which flourished in 

 that neighbourhood while those beds were being formed ; and the 

 set of remains differs in each group of strata, so that it is possible 

 to extract the history of the earth from these rocks and in many 



