14 The Origin of the 



show that the chalk was not formed at the bottom 

 of the sea, though much of it may once have lain 

 there. 



The general sterility of chalk by itself, as a soil, 

 may, however, suggest the inquiry whether many of 

 these remarkable specimens of vegetation may not 

 largely have grown on a previous and different ante- 

 diluvian soil, and have become covered up and buried 

 with chalk-dust, as with a snow-storm, from causes 

 which will suggest themselves in the course of our 

 investigation. That a blighting curse had fallen 

 upon the land more than 600 years before the deluge 

 is not improbable, from the words of the father of 

 Noah, in giving him that name, — words which may 

 not refer to the general curse upon the ground from 

 Adam's days, so many centuries back, but which 

 seem more special : — " This same shall comfort us 

 concerning our work and toil of our hands because 

 of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." Patri- 

 archal patience, skill, and industry may have suc- 

 ceeded in restoring verdure and fruitfulness even on 

 that disadvantageous soil. And after the flood we 

 read the promise that there should thenceforth be no 

 further repetition of t'le curse upDn the ground 

 (Gen. viii. 21) ; rather implying that there had 

 previously been a repetition of it, and apparently 

 not referring exclusively to the primeval curse 

 (Gen. iii. 17 — 19), which even now seems not re- 

 pealed. 



But the question of the origin of the chalk is too 

 closely connected with that of the flint to be un- 

 affected by the facts produced and to be produced 

 regarding the latter. 



Flint is also found in flat, tabular form, abundant 

 in the cliffs at Flamborough, and between Ramsgate 



