1865-68 
THEIR TEACHINGS 
179 
for the growth of a stronger, or better, or longer 
antler, year after year, till the antler acquires its 
perfection as a weapon of combat. 
‘ The last series of objects,’ the Professor 
proceeds, ‘which for the present purpose I have 
picked up by the wayside are a number of peb- 
bles — common wayside stones. They abound 
in many parts of Richmond Park, in accumula- 
tions of gravel resting upon hollows of the clay 
— the “ London Clay ” of geologists — which there 
forms the general substratum. 
‘ In some of these deposits we find that the 
pebbles for the most part are broken, with the 
edges slightly rounded. In other heaps we find 
the pebbles are completely or smoothly rounded. 
Such at once suggest a resemblance to those 
pebbles which you may have seen on a tidal 
shore, worn to the same state by the incessant 
operation of the ebb and flow with the more 
violent washing of breakers and surf-waves. Are 
We required to believe that the rounded pebble 
Was so created, and placed as such, where we 
happen to pick it up ? If not, what a series of 
thoughts and conjectures such a stone conjures 
up! We know the cause in operation adequate 
to its rounding. We have seen and heard the 
ceaseless roll of the sea-bed moved by the surging 
tide. On what shore did this take place ? How 
Was the rounded pebble transported, with its 
gravel bed, to its present position ? In the 
N 2 
