(CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 419 



cretaceous strata broken up, and swept away from the whole central 

 ^rea of Kent and Sussex. On these phenomena Dr. Fitton observes, 

 that, * whether the fractures and up-heavings took place entirely be- 

 neath the sea, or after the strata were in part or wholly raised above 

 its surface, at once or at distant epochs, we have no facts to enable us 

 to decide ; it is, indeed, not impossible that the very act of rending the 

 strata may itself have effected their protrusion from beneath the 

 waves.'* If, however, we consider that the chalk was upwards of 

 1200 feet in thickness, and extended over the whole southern denuda- 

 iion, it seems probable that elevation and destruction were going on 

 simultaneously. So soon as the first ridge of chalk on the anticlinal 

 line protruded above the surface of the ocean, it would become expo- 

 sed to the action of the waves ; and as elevation proceeded, degrada- 

 tion would proceed also, until the whole of the chalk strata were car- 

 ried away, and the Wealden beds in their turn became exposed to the 

 same destructive agency. The debris of both formations would thus 

 become intermixed and deposited in the hollows of the chalk, giving 

 fise to those accumulations of transported materials of which the ter- 

 tiary strata are principally composed. During these important and 

 extensive changes, the tertiary ocean which then covered the south- 

 east of England, must have been studded with islands, formed by the 

 most elevated portions of the chalk and Wealden ;t the marshes of the 

 then existing continent were peopled with tribes of extinct animals 

 allied to the Tapir (the pal(Botherians,) and the lacustrine formations 

 of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were deposited. 



The organic remains of the tertiary epoch dilfer entirely from those 

 of the chalk upon which in the south-east of England they repose. 

 In the Isle of Wight, in the Paris Basin, and many contemporaneous 

 deposits on the continent, they consist of alternations of marine and 

 freshwater shells, indicating the existence of lakes communicating 

 with the sea. The ammonites, and other ancient pelagian shells, en- 

 tirely disappear, and a small proportion of recent species occurs in 

 the most ancient, and a much more considerable number in the newer 

 deposits. With these are associated the remains of the Palseotheria, 

 of crocodiles, turtles, birds, and fishes ; and the stems and leaves of 

 palms, and other vegetables characteristic of an equatorial climate. 

 In the tertiary strata of the south-east of England, no traces of mam- 

 malia have been discovered ; the organic remains consisting of shells, 

 the bones and teeth of fishes, and the leaves and stems of vegetables. 



The next era is marked by the existence of the fossil elephant, or 

 mammoth, in these latitudes, having for contemporaries a species of 

 deer, ox, and horse ; and in other parts of England, the rhinoceros, 

 hippopotamus, &c. The teeth which have been found in Sussex be- 

 long to a species nearly allied to the Asiatic elephant, and the deposits 

 in which they occur are decidedly of a more recent date than those 



* Geology of Hastings, p. 83. 



t Vide the ' Principles of Geology,' vol. ii. In the map illnstrating the extent of 

 the tertiary sea, or seas, it will be seen that Mr. Lyell has delineated a range of 

 chalk islands in the south-eastern part of England, agreeably to this theory of the 

 gradual elevation of the land. 



