GEnLOGY OP FOI.KKSTONE — TIIR OA.ULT. 
89 
state, or tho myriad 8warma of smaller cephalopoda have furnished 
the fertilizing phosphate ? I know of nothing to justify this idea, 
unless the phosphatic pellets we not uncommonly find in juxta- 
position with the little Bclemnites of the gault are the shrivelled 
bodies of tho cuttle-fish, whose internal supports they were. That 
which seems to me probable is that this remarkable band derives its 
origin from the organic debris of a great ocean, very clear of mineral 
sedimentary matter, dm-ing a long period of time ; or, that when the 
alteration of physical condition took place, by which the sandy 
deposits of the Lower Greensand were exchanged for the muddy 
condition of the Gault, a deposition of organic dchris took place, 
derived from the destruction possibly of a part of the fauna of the 
Cretaceous sea, by the influx of unfavourable currents, or from the 
washing in to its area of some previous accumulation of the decaying 
substances of some coastal region. 
Be this as it may, the subjacent greensand, comparatively free 
from calcareous or argillaceous matter, indicates the clearness of the 
water in which it was deposited; and when the cessation of its 
deposit took place, the mineral characters of the Gault shew that 
it derived its origin fi-om a very different source. Between the 
periods of these two deposits is it unreasonable to suppose an 
intei'val of local quiescence and freedom from any of the wasting 
operations which produced the sedimentary materials of the Gault 
and Greensand to have taken place, during which the organic matter 
of the Cretaceous sea fell to the bottom, to form in future ages a vast 
store of mineral manm'e. 
How unconscious of aU this was the ornamented ammonite, sport- 
ing in its glittering shell, or the teredo boring tho drifting wood. 
When we think how the dead and putrid things falling in the ocean's 
depths in after ages may be changed into bread — how rich in 
treasure is the slime and bottom of the deep ; when we think that in 
the silent waters, dark and deep, myriads of toiling creatures were at 
their busy work millions of ages since ; when we look through the 
long vista of time, and contemplate the changes that probably have 
happened to the little clot of eai'th that forms our muscles, nerves, 
and bones ; when we think that the gay and scented flowers might 
have been once the refuse of the deep, and that in the changes of 
VOL. III. M 
