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THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. IV. 



and if when we stated the manner in which those changes 

 had been effected, he should not only refuse his assent to 

 our explanation, but insist that the shells, leaves, and bones, 

 were merely accidental forms of the stone, should we not 

 feel astonished at his ignorance and prejudice? — yet not a 

 century since, and such an opinion almost universally pre- 

 vailed, and is even still entertained by many. And farther, 

 if our assumed personage admitted that the remains in 

 question were fossil animals and vegetables, but asserted 

 that they had been entombed in the strata by a general 

 deluge which had softened the crust of the earth, and 

 engulfed in the sediments of its waters the remains of 

 animated nature — should we not reply, that as such a cata- 

 strophe must inevitably have mingled together the relics of 

 animals and vegetables, whether of the land, the rivers, or 

 the seas — the regular stratification of the materials com- 

 posing the delta, and the exclusive occurrence of land and 

 fresh- water productions, were fatal to such a supposition, 

 and afforded conclusive evidence of the correctness of our 

 explanation of the phenomena ? — it was by such inductions 

 that the fluviatile nature of the Wealden was established. 



5. Wealden of the Sussex coast. — From the dis- 

 tribution of the Wealden over the south-east of England, 

 instructive sections have been formed between Beachy 

 Head and Dover, by the action of the sea along the coast. 

 From the stupendous cliffs of Beachy Head, the Chalk 

 extends towards Southbourn, where beds of Gait, Firestone, 

 and Greensand, successively emerge, forming the base of 

 the shore, and abounding in characteristic marine fossils. 

 Passing over Pevensey Levels, the boundary of which on 

 the sea-side is obscured by modern shingle, we arrive at 

 Bexhill and Bulverhithe, and find the cliffs composed of 

 laminated sandstones and clays ; and those of St. Leonard, 

 of similar strata, more extensively developed : sands and 

 clays separated into very thin lamina?, alternate with 



