MEDINA SANDSTONE. 
57 
has been successively a beach washed by Waves, and again covered with deposits of sand by 
the returning waters. 
In standing upon the exposed surface of the quarry, one can almost fancy himself still 
upon the shore of some quiet bay or arm of the sea, where the waves of the receding tide 
have left these little ridges of sand, which on their return will be obliterated and mingled 
with the mass around. The shells and fragments, and the clouded sand, all lie around him 
with a freshness of appearance that might almost make him doubt. But his foot is upon the 
firm rock, and his hand cannot obliterate the faint waveline, nor remove a single shell from its 
place. Every thing is firm and fixed, and he is forced to recollect that millions of ages have 
rolled on, since the sea washed this shore, and the shells lay upon the glistening sand as he 
may have seen them in the haunts of his childhood. How beautiful, how simple, and how 
grand is this exhibition ; and how much does it illumine the mind as to the mode of produc¬ 
tion of these older formations which have been considered so obscure. Here was an ocean 
supplied with all the materials for forming rocky strata : in its deeper parts were going on 
the finer depositions, and on its shores were produced the sandy beaches, and the pebbly 
banks. All, for aught we know, was as bright and beautiful as upon our ocean shores of the 
present day ; the tide ebbed and flowed, its waters ruffled by the gentle breeze, and nature 
wrought in all her various forms as at the present time, though man was not there to say, 
how beautiful ! 
Geol. 4th Dist. 
8 
