THE ORDEAL BY WATER. 25 



ages before the Christian era. The ancient Greek fable of 

 the floating islands called Symplegades probably origina 

 ted in the volcanic movements of the earth s crust in the 

 vicinity of the Thracian Bosporus, the ineffaceable traces 

 of which are still to be seen. 



The entire chain of the Aleutian Islands, ranging across 

 the North Pacific from Alaska to Kamtschatka, is but a 

 series of vestiges of an ancient ridge of land now worn out, 

 but originally raised by the power of volcanic fires which 

 are even to-day smouldering beneath the bed of the sea. 

 These fires, as late as 1796, burst out a few miles north of 

 the island of Unalaska, and added another member to the 

 group, which has continued to grow in size till recent 

 times. 



As might be expected, the records of continental oscilla 

 tions are not confined to sea-coast lines, but may be de 

 tected along our lakes and in the valleys of the rivers. 



If such changes occur in a lifetime, what may not a slow 

 subsidence or elevation amount to in the lifetime of our 

 race ? A depression in the valley of the Lower Mississippi 

 of only three hundred feet would admit the waters of the 

 Gulf of Mexico up to the mouth of the Ohio. A trifling 

 depression in Northern Illinois would furnish an outlet to 

 the Gulf for Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron. A de 

 pression of eight hundred feet would submerge nearly the 

 whole of the Southern and Western States. 



How easy, then, in view of facts which every body can 

 observe, to admit the geological doctrine of the former 

 submergence of all the continents. The shells broken from 

 the wall of the gorge at Trenton Falls, though unlike any 

 fresh- water forms, are still the kindred of beings now living 

 in the Atlantic ; and, with the evidence before us, we can 

 not resist the conviction that the dominion of the sea once 

 extended over the Empire State. As the relics of Roman 



B 



