A second world; a new world. We can use no weaker expression. When
we compare the chalk with the strata which lie upon it, we can only
call them a complete new creation.
For not only were they deposited in shallow water; a great deal of
them, probably, near river-mouths, and by the force of violent
currents, as the irregularity of their lower bed proves: but there
is hardly a plant or animal found in the chalk itself, which is
found in the gravels, sands, or clays above it. The shells are all
new species; unseen before in this planet. The vegetables, as far
as we know them, are all different from anything found in the chalk,
or in the beds below it. God Almighty, for His own good pleasure,
has made all things new. It is a very awful fact; but it is a very
certain one. Several times, in the history of our planet, has the
Lord God fulfilled the words of the Psalmist:
"Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return again to their
dust.
"Thou sendest forth thy breath, they are made: and thou renewest
the face of the earth."
But in no instance, perhaps, is the gulf so vast; is the leap from
one world to another so sheer, as that between the chalk and the
London clay above it.
But how do I know that there was a shore-line here? And how do I
know that the chalk was covered with sand-beds?
I know that there was a shore-line here, from this fact.
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