i8o PROFESSOR OWEN CH. vi. 
first place, I have to remark that all these pebbles 
are composed of flint — of the same mineral sub- 
stance as the dark masses which at some parts of 
our white coast-cliffs you may see studding, in 
parallel but distant rows, the face of the chalk in 
which they are imbedded. Our pebbles are frag- 
ments of such flints that have been more or less 
rolled and rounded by the action of the sea. In 
the gravel-heaps they are dispersed through sili- 
ceous sand — i.e. flint in a more comminuted state, 
with a small proportion of clay or loam, stained 
yellow or reddish by oxides of iron, as is the 
surface of the pebbles also for some depth. Are 
we to suppose that the pebble was created so 
stained, or that it acquired the stain by being 
subjected long enough to the colouring cause ? I 
assume the latter.’ 
The Professor then gives an account of the 
‘ London Clay ’ and some of its deposits, and 
concludes : ‘Wherever you contemplate Nature 
you see renewal prepared for wearing out and 
passing away. 
‘ H ow narrow, how selfish, how akin to 
Egyptian darkness of thought, seemed it then to 
repine that life must end — to deem of death only 
as an evil ! Whereas, therein is the necessary 
stipulation for that succession which involves the 
purest pleasures of life — the reverential love of 
parents, the sweet affection for children, the 
closest union of hearts, as of husband and wife- 
