208 GEOLOGY. 



was made at this time. The whole chain of the Rocky Mountain,, 

 was lifted up, so as to leave a broad depression eastward of the 

 Wasatch, and on both sides of the Uintas. (King.) The Laramie 

 Group was turned up at all angles, from a few degrees to a vertical 

 position, as it is now found in many places beneath the superincum- 

 bent Tertiary. This upturning affected also the Cascade Range, 

 which was then first outlined. The whole region of the plains 

 sympathized with this movement, so that they became an extended 

 land surface. Nebraska now certainly, for the first time since the 

 early Cretaceous, over its whole territory became a land surface. 

 The elevation in the mountains became sufficient to give free drain- 

 age to the sea, and exclude the oceanic waters. The great interior 

 sea became so completely exterminated, and the continent so 

 elevated, that it has never since been subjected to the sway of the 

 ocean. Henceforward, fresh water lakes became dominant, down 

 to the borders of our own times. 



