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FOSSIL SHELL IN CHALK.

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'Simply to examine whether it does not contain something which I should like to possess."

Mrs. Beaufoy then showed Harry a part of the chalk which was irregularly broken, exhibiting a portion of some substance which seemed to be embedded in the chalk. the knife against it.

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She rapped the handle of

This is what I want to see,

Harry try if you can cut away this upper side of the chalk so as to lay bare the substance within: I hope it will be worth the trouble.”

"The trouble will not be much, at any rate, with my strong knife," said Harry, who immediately commenced his operations. In a little while, the form of a shell was plainly visible, and his mother desired him to exchange the large blade of his knife for the small one, with which he might conveniently scrape the chalk from every part of the shell. He did so, and his patience was soon rewarded by the appearance of a perfect cockleshell, with all its delicate ribs and scalloped edges.

"How could you guess that such a shell would be here!" exclaimed he, in a tone of delighted surprise. "There seems no end to the wonders of chalk and lime; only think of a cockle, which ought to be found in the sand on the sea-shore, getting

into this chalk-pit, so many miles from the sea. And look, mamma, only look! the shell is open as if the fish had gaped, and the chalk is exactly fitted into it. How could this happen?"

How long I

"What should prevent it, Harry?" "The hardness of chalk, mamma. have been cutting and scraping to get at the shell! It is a real shell; but the wonder is, how it could come into the chalk, and how, when there, it could gape; for gape it certainly did, like an oyster in a warm room?"

"Do you think it possible, that if the chalk had always been hard as it now is, this shell could have been imbedded in the manner we see it ?-that hard chalk like this could have exactly filled the opening of the shell, and fitted itself with such nicety into every little rib on its surface ?"

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'No, mamma; and there is the puzzle.”

"I can only explain it by introducing you to a fresh scene of wonders. This shell, my dear boy, is one of a multitude of similar productions: they have been called, and, I think, with great beauty of expression, THE MEDALS OF CREATION. A medal, you know, is an ancient coin, or a piece stamped to perpetuate the remembrance of some

1 Parkinson's Organic Remains, i. 8.

MEDALS OF CREATION.

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remarkable event. I will give this shell to you, as a medal or memorial, for such it is, of the time when the hill upon which we are now sitting was in a fluid state."

Harry was too much wonder-struck to thank his mother, or even to look at the shell. After a short silence, he exclaimed: "Fluid, mamma! this hill fluid! and if this, then other hills-all those !" continued he, looking round him. The place where they were sitting commanded an extensive range of the South Downs, and he remained silent, quite absorbed by the novelty and vastness of the idea now presented to his mind. At length he resumed the conversation, by saying, in a low voice, "I shall not forget this walk, I believe. You have been very kind to me, mamma; always willing to explain whatever I wished to know: and I thought I did know a great many things, but I now see that I am ignorant of the real nature of the plainest, commonest things in the world. The very ground we walk upon seems a mystery. These hills fluid! Can it be possible that I understand you rightly?"

"Yes, my dear Harry; and though the idea has become familiar to my own mind, I do not wonder at the astonishment which the first perception of it

has excited in yours. You need not, however, be discouraged, by finding how little you have hitherto understood of the real nature of common things.' Hold fast what you do know, and more knowledge will come by degrees if you seek for it."

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If!" said Harry with animation: "I think you need not doubt-my willingness at least," added he, in a less sanguine tone. "But, mother," he continued, speaking very earnestly, "do you really think I am old enough to understand these wonders ?"

"I do not exactly know which 'wonders' you mean, Harry. We are surrounded by many which are beyond our comprehension, but a vast number of interesting facts are open to our inquiries, and as we become acquainted with them, and reflect upon them, we shall gradually form clearer notions of the world we inhabit, and of that series of operations by which the Great Architect has made it what you see. Can you imagine any inquiry more deserving our attention ?"

"Certainly not," replied Harry; "and perhaps some of those operations may not be more difficult to understand than many things you have already explained to me respecting the instincts and habits

of insects, and the structure of our own bodies. ' But yet, the structure of the Earth seems such a grand, such an immense subject! I should, however, be very glad if I could have any, even the faintest idea, of the formation of these hills. To think of the solid ground itself having been fluid— it is the greatest of all wonders!"

"We will take another opportunity of talking about it. Now let us make the best of our way home."

1 See Harry Beaufoy.