I02 THE BUILDING OF AN ISLAND. 



Miocene limestones. Dr. Spencer regards tliese great earth movements as 

 quite different from the mountain-building thrusts, and if his views are correct, 

 it is likely that the land here stood much higher at the end of the period of 

 lifting than we now see it. 



Whether this were so or not, we see a third land appear to view, not to 

 remain intact, however, but to be dealt with just as its predecessorShad been 

 dealt with, that is to say, to have its I'aw material broken up by the air and 

 sculptured bv the streams into beautiful forms, and its soil prepared and kept 

 fit for the nourishment of the multitude of plants that come to adorn its 

 surface. On this land it is that we live, and most of us feel that it is indeed 

 a fair and a pleasant land. 



Some years ago, the writer, while driving along one of our country roads 

 with a young companion, pointed out a few layers of limestone showing in the 

 roadside bank, and remarked that we could there find a lesson about the way 

 in which the island had been built up. " But I thought the world was as God 

 made it," was the reply, to which was answered, " Certainly, you can still think 

 so, but that need not prevent your learning something of the way in which it 

 was made." Fortunately, no special knowledge is needed to see that in this 

 beautiful island of St. Croix we have a goodly heritage, and to feel the grati- 

 tude that naturally arises from the sense of the greatness of the gift. For 

 some of us the ground for gratitude is greatly increased by the added pleasure 

 of knowing something, in however meagre and dim a fashion, of the truly 

 wonderful processes by which this goodly heritage of ours has been created. 



