CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 417 



genera, wholly unknown ; and, as we have elsewhere observed, the 

 fossil bones of the oviparous quadrupeds are so enormous, that it is 

 even difficult to believe the evidence of our senses, when we attempt, 

 from these remains, to restore the forms of the extinct monsters of the 

 ancient world. 



The next great change is the subsidence of the Wealden into the 

 abyss of that extensive and profound ocean which deposited the chalk 

 formation. Whether this mutation were effected suddenly, or by 

 elow degrees ; whether the Wealden subsided entire, or were broken 

 up previously to its submergence ; or whether, hke the Isle of Port- 

 land, it constituted dry land at some remote period antecedently to its 

 being buried beneath the sea, we have no data to enable us to decide. 

 The principal lines of elevation of the Wealden are clearly referable to 

 those movements which up-heaved the chalk and incumbent strata : 

 but we may observe, that the deeper beds exhibit traces of extensive 

 faults and dislocations, which seem to belong to previous disruptions, 

 for the fissures and chasms are filled up with broken shale, and clay, 

 and sand, the debris of the Wealden, and contain no intermixture what- 

 ever of the marine deposits which may be supposed to have once cov- 

 ered them. 



The ocean of the chalk appears to have been of vast extent ; it bu- 

 ried beneath its waters a considerable part of Europe ; and, probably, 

 like the Atlantic, its waves reached the western world, and covered a 

 portion of the continent of North America.* The nature of the strata, 

 and the organic remains which they enclose, prove that the chalk was 

 deposited in the tranquil depths of a profound ocean ; the abundance 

 of Ammonites, Nautili, and other multilocular shells that inhabit the 

 bottom of the deep ; the almost entire absence of pebbles and gravel ; 

 the perfect state in which the fishes and other perishable organic bod- 

 ies occur — not as in the Wealden, crushed, and disjointed, but as per- 

 fect as if they had been enveloped by a soft paste when living, or even 

 while in a state of progression — all hear evidence in favour of such a 

 conclusion. 



There are but few, if any remains of terrestrial animals and plants, 

 to throw light on the nature of the climate during the cretaceous 

 epoch : we may, however, infer from the nautili and other tropical 

 shells, as well as from the presence of the stony polipidoms, or corals, 

 that the temperature was not much inferior to that of the Iguanodon 

 period, for this division of zoophytes is not known to exist in low lati- 

 tudes in our modern seas.f The cretaceous strata of the chalk, with 



* The occurrence of the remains of the Mososaurus^ that extraordinary reptile- 

 of the Maestricht beds, in the strata of the United States, previously mentioned, is 

 a remarkable fact in corroboration of such an inference. See Dr. Morton on the 

 Ferruginous Sand Formation of North America, 8vo. 1 vol. with plates. Phila- 

 delphia. 1833. 



t M. Lamouroux observes, that in the colder latitudes the CcUarias, and Sertu- 

 larice alone are to be found ; with a few closely woven sponges, and a small num- 

 ber of alcyonia. The minute Pentacri7ms Europceus, recently discovered by Mr. 

 Thompson in the Cove of Cork, is an exception ; but the recent Pentacrinus Ca- 

 put Medusa, to which the pentacrinal stems that occur in the chalk bear consider- 

 able analogy, is found in the sea off the West India Islands. 



