Chalk and Flint Formation. 31 



roots, it may be observed that the flint exhibits only 

 the external cast, and in the interior there is the grain 

 of the flint without any indication of the fibre of 

 wood, such as might have been expected if the 

 specimen had been formed by infiltration from 

 water, or matter of equal fluidity. The same may 

 be said generally of the remarkable specimens of 

 silex moulded into portions of trees which occur in 

 what is known as "the petrified forest of Cairo,' ' 

 which has, I incline to think, been formed in the 

 same manner ; and which may thus afford a remark- 

 able standing witness to the memorable plague of 

 the hail and the " continuous rain of fire " ' which 

 ran or flowed along the ground. 



By the kindness of my friend, Mr. Tod, of Alex- 

 andria, I have been furnished with interesting 

 specimens of these extraordinary remains ; and the 

 sand and pebbles which have lain contiguous to them 

 appear to indicate the fact of the formation having 

 been made by the action of fire, from the manner in 

 which they are occasionally welded together ; just 

 as the shingle of the sea-beach has been welded into 

 hard plum-pudding stone by the irruption of igneous 



1 Exod. ix. 23, 24. Jin^Jip #N ; Gesen., " continuous fire." 



The Authorized English Version renders it " fire mingled with the 

 hail." But in Ezek. i. 4, the same word occurring cannot there 

 mean" mingled," but rather " continuous " (English Authorized and 

 Eevised Versions, " enfolding itself"). The "fire " is called "rain," 

 Exod. ix. 34 ; for it is not aqueous rain which is recorded to have 

 thus accompanied the hail, but "fire;" even as it "rained" Hie 

 and brimstone upon Sodom (Gen. xix. 24). The expression is the 

 same in the two cases in the Hebrew original, just as it is in the 

 English. In Psalm cv. 25, accordingly, the fire is spoken of as a 

 shower ; where the literal order and rendering of the Hebrew is, 

 " He gave for their showers, hail, fire, flames in their land;" with 

 which the Septuagint Version is in accordance. And in the book 

 of Wisdom, ch. xvi. 16—22, it is spoken of as having caused much 



