Chalk and Flint Formation. 13 



kingdom in the Cretaceous age was not local merely. 

 In Moravia, in the Hartz, in Belgium and France, 

 even in Greenland, the same great renewing of the 

 face of the earth was in progress. In America it 

 was proceeding on a grand scale, and seems to have 

 set in earlier than in Europe. In the Dakota group 

 of the West, one of the lower members of the 

 Cretaceous, and covering a vast area, a rich 

 angiospermous flora has been discovered by Hayden, 

 and described by Lesquereux and Newberry, and 

 beds of coal have been formed from its remains. 

 In Vancouver's Island in British Columbia, Cre- 

 taceous coal-measures occur, comparable in value, 

 and in the excellence of the fuel which they afford, 

 with those of the true coal formation." 7 



For these facts, as stated, Dr. Sir William Dawson 

 is responsible; but I cite them as bearing in the 

 same direction with the evidence I personally 

 produce. The chalk itself, strictly so called, forms 

 indeed one of the most barren soils ; and the chalk 

 downs furnish little besides a bare pasturage for 

 sheep ; but the red marl which is associated with 

 the Cretaceous and Flint formations, and which in 

 America extensively takes the place of the pure 

 chalk, affords root to shrubs and trees. Remains of 

 peculiar birds also have been found in the Cretaceous 

 formation, 8 and, it is said, even indications of 

 monkeys; 9 and much more might be presented from 

 familiar sources of information, all contributing to 



7 " The Chain of Life in Geological Time/' by Sir J. "W. Dawson, 

 LL.D.,F.K.S.,F.S.S., &c, pp. 187, 188. 



8 Ibid., p. 173, and Trans. Geol. Soc., 2nd series, 4 to, vol. vi.., 

 page 411. The bird in this last citation was thought to be of an 

 unknown species, most like the Albatross. 



9 Milner's " Gallery of Nature," p. 641. 



