OBLITERATED CONTINENTS. 139 



of rocks of the same age as those forming the Lauren- 

 tide hills. I think it probable another continent spread 

 over the Caribbean Sea at the time of the continental 

 connection of America and Europe. There, where that 

 primitive continent la}^ are Cuba, now, and Jamaica, and 

 the lesser Antilles, hundreds in number, the rags and 

 tatters of a land once continuous perhaps beautiful 

 perhaps enduring until the middle ages of geological his- 

 tory, and then populated by the grotesque forms of rep- 

 tiles, which were, in that time, the highest and the dom- 

 inant type of beings upon the earth. That West Indian 

 continent overlapped a small portion of South America. 

 Guiana was annexed to that which has become the West 

 Indies. All other parts of South America were beneath 

 the sea. The Andes ah! the Andes were building re- 

 ceiving, probably, the self-same material which was dis- 

 appearing from the West Indian continent. Stretching 

 from Cuba northward was the ocean, whose northern shore 

 was in Canada, in later times in central New York. 

 Here, where rise the cliffs which we ignorantly style 

 " everlasting," was then the empire of the ocean. There, 

 where Neptune now holds almost undisputed sway, rose 

 ranofes of granitic mountains, w^iicli have melted into sedi- 

 nient. Tennyson has happily rendered the thought: 



" There rolls tlie deep where grew the tree. 

 O earth, what changes hast thou seen ! 

 There where the long street roars, hath been 

 The stillness of the central sea. 



" The hills arc shadows, and they flow 



From form to form, and nothing stands; 

 They melt like mist, the solid lands, 

 Like clouds they shape themselves and go." 



In Memoriam, cxxi. 



