And it was nothing more.”

To us they speak a wondrous story, replete with the knowledge that maketh glad the heart of man, because it is purifying, elevating knowledge; and though it does not teach the peculiar truths of theology, and we heartily wish that geology had been allowed to tell only its own tale of Creation—for here, as elsewhere,

“Nature, when unadorned,

Is then adorned the most”—

instead of being put to the rack, and made to suggest the special truths of Revelation,[[116]] with which it has nothing to do;—although, we say, it does not teach the peculiar and special truths for which a Revelation was needed, it everywhere throws light on the boundless treasures of wisdom and care and beneficent Providence of the God of revelation. But again we catch ourselves sermonizing: to the diagram.

Fossils from the London Clay.
1. Tellina crassa.
2. Chama squamosa.
3. Turritella imbricataria.
4. Fusus asper.
5. Pleurotoma colon.
6. Murex tubifer.
7. Aporhais pes-pelicani.
8. Voluta luctator (or luctatrix).
9. Trochus monolifer: the necklace trochus.
10. Venericardia cor-avium.
11. Fusus bulbiformis: the bulb fusus.

These fossils we obtained from the neighbourhood of Christchurch; and as these sheets were being written, we received from Dr. Mantell’s “Geological Excursions in the Isle of Wight,” the following appropriate description of them: “The numerous marine fossil shells which are obtained from this part of the coast of Hampshire, are generally known as Hordwell fossils; but it is scarcely necessary to remark, that they almost entirely belong to the London clay strata, and are procured from Barton cliffs. These fossils are most conveniently obtained from the low cliff near Beacon Bunny, and occur in greatest abundance in the upper part of the dark green sandy clay. There are generally blocks of the indurated portions of the strata on the beach, from which fossils may be extracted. A collection of Hordwell fossils, consisting of the teeth of several species of sharks and rays, bones of turtles, and a great variety of shells, may be purchased at a reasonable price of Jane Webber, dealer in fossils, Barton cliff, near Christchurch.”—(P. 124.)

Before leaving the Eocene, or rather the London clay of the Eocene, we will give a drawing of a fossil in our possession. The drawing opposite represents a piece of fossil wood, pierced through and through by Teredinæ, a boring mollusk allied to the Teredo, which still proves so destructive to our vessels. Although the wood is converted into a stony mass, and in some parts covered by calcareous matter, the same as is found in the septaria, so common in these beds, to which we shall presently direct attention, still the grain and woody texture are most distinct. This wood was once probably floating down what we now call the Thames, when these piercing, boring mollusks seized hold upon it, penetrated its soft texture, and lived, moved, and had their being down at the bottom of the river in their self-constructed chambers. Time rolled on, and the log of wood is floated upon the shore, and there it lies to harden and to dry; again the log is drifted away, and, buried in some soft bed of clay, is preserved from rotting. In process of time it again sees the light; but now saturated by argillaceous material, and when hardened by the sun, becomes the petrifaction such as we see it.