22 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



The columns of other temples are in a similar manner 

 found submerged. Roman roads have been discovered 

 many feet under water. Ancient sea-coasts have been ob 

 served far inland. On this continent the shore-line of the 

 Atlantic is experiencing a series of slow, undulatory move 

 ments. At St. Augustine, in Florida, the stumps of cedar 

 trees stand beneath the hard beach shell-rock, immersed in 

 the water at the lowest tides. Some of the sounds upon 

 the coast of North Carolina, which have been navigable 

 within the memory of living sea-captains, are now impassa 

 ble bars or emerging sand-flats. Along the coast of New 

 Jersey the sea has encroached, within sixty years, upon the 

 sites of former habitations, and entire forests have been 

 prostrated by the inundation. In the harbor of Nantucket 

 the upright stumps of trees are found eight feet below the 

 lowest tide, with their roots still buried in their native soil. 

 Similar ruins of ancient submarine forests occur on Mar 

 tha s Vineyard, and on the north side of Cape Cod, and 

 again at Portland. In the region of the St. Croix River, 

 separating Maine from New Brunswick, the coast has been 

 raised, carrying deposits of recent shells and sea-weeds in 

 one instance to the height of twenty-eight feet above the 

 present surface of the sea. The island of Grand Manan, 

 off the mouth of the St. Croix River, is slowly rotating on 

 an axis, so that, while the south side is gradually dipping 

 beneath the waves, the north is lifted into high bluffs. 

 Near the River St. John is an area, of twenty square miles 

 containing marine shells and plants recently elevated from 

 the sea. One hundred and fifty miles east of here, the 

 shore is experiencing another subsidence. The north side 

 of Nova Scotia is sinking, while the south is rising, inso 

 much that breakers now appear off the southern coast in 

 places safely navigable years ago. The ancient city of 

 Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton, is another testi-- 



