THE CHEESEWRIXG, CORNWALL, AND ITS TEACHINGS. 149 



monument. He has interpreted it to us by means of one of those 

 " sermons in stones " of which we constantly hear, but of -svhich we 

 do not very often understand the language. Professor Hull is, 

 however, an adept in that language, and his exi^lanation, I need 

 hardly say, is singularly clear and explicit. The great lesson which 

 has been tauo;ht to us undoubtedlv is that of " denudation." 



Shakespeare's great mind, I believe, grasped the whole subject of 

 sub-aerial denudation when he wrote, "Time makes mountains level, 

 and the continent, weary of solid firmness, melts itself into the 

 sea." He saw the whole process going on — how a plain, subject to 

 sub-aerial denudation, might liecome carved out and utterly -worn 

 away till the whole mass would be reduced, as it ultimately might 

 be reduced, to the level of the sea, luiless there were some 

 compensating elevation. 



Very much has been said about the dependence of features of 

 scenery upon geological structure, and no doubt those featiu^s do 

 depend, in a remarkable degree, on geological structure ; but one of 

 the most forcible lessons brought before us by this "sermon in 

 stones," which has been interpreted to us to-night, is, if I may say 

 so, how independent scenery can sometimes be of geological 

 structure. You would naturally suppose that these contorted 

 strata (as drawn on the blackboard) would form, when they were 

 bent into a saddle, a valle}', and when they were bent into anti- 

 clinal axes, a hill ; but there is a good example in the lower part of 

 this small diagram of the reverse being the case, where a little valley 

 is carved out on the top of the anticlinal axis. That exemplifies 

 the independence of the scenery to some extent. At the same time 

 there may be a deeper meaning in it, and there may really be 

 dependence. For instance, it is well known that the tops of anti- 

 clinal axes are more or less shortened, like the reefs of Bendigo and 

 some of the Australian fields. These shortened anticlinal axes may 

 have given direction to the forces which eroded the valley in that 

 instance, though the contrary appears to be the case. 



Then, again, in the section of the Avon drawn on the board it is 

 seen how the valley is carved out of the escarpment at right angles 

 to the strike of the strata and the level summit of the clifts which 

 is made by the truncated ends of the strata of limestone. 



As to the Cheesewring, it is a very remarkable and picturesque 

 example. There are many such, but in England there are, perhaps. 



