76 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



" It came to pass the sea again o'erflowed : 

 The marsh went downward with its carbon load. 

 Some mountain, gable- roofed, had raised its crest, 

 And lesser weight beneath its cover pressed : 

 Plutonic magma rose to fill the space, 

 And let the sea resume its ancient place. 



"The Earth forever shrinks upon its core: 

 'T is shrinking now, as it has shrunk before : 

 Its skin (to Earth a hairbreadth to an inch), 

 In folds and wrinkles shows the mighty pinch: 

 Its strength is weaken'd where 'tis often bent, 

 Between the highland and the sea's descent; 



"And as it shrinks to less and lesser girth. 

 Up bursts some inner matter of the Earth. 

 Now, where the Spanish Peaks are was a coast, 

 Along which line the crust was weakened most. 

 When unfledged ages passed to ages flown. 

 And Earth had very little cooler grown, 



"Its crust, more shrunken than it e'er had been, 

 Exerted greater stress on things within. 

 And forced up, as it were a drop of paste, 

 From out the vastness of the mass encased : 

 That viscous drop the Spanish Peaks became — 

 To man a lofty, awe-inspiring frame. 



"The hot mass on its shoulders bore a cloak. 

 From sea-constructed rock through which it broke. 

 And, like a huge cephalopod, ic thrust 

 Its tentacles through fissures in the crust. 

 Which its own violence had opened wide, 

 In radiating lines on every side. 



"It pushed its feet between the sheets of rock 

 The sea had laid, as if its work to mock : 

 It formed its skirt of rent and angled parts, 

 And challenged clouds to hurl their lightning darts. 

 The clouds were willed to wage a furious war; 

 To them were wind and frost allied that for: 



"Ten hundred thousand years the battle raged. 

 And still the allied forces are engaged. 

 Earth sent up reinforcements to its own ; 

 Dike after dike gave to it bulk and bone. 

 Until 't was braced with ribs throughout its form. 

 And raised its taunting heads above the storm. 



"And still the elements beat, day by day ; 

 A thousand meters' height has worn away; 

 Its cloak is but the remnant of a wrap. 

 Its skirt has .. asted to a ragged scrap. 

 Ten billion tons of snow and ice it's held; 

 Tee billion tons of water has repelled. 



