12 2 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



CHAPTER XII. 



ONWARD THROUGH THE AGES. 



npHE evening shades of one of eternity s aeons are gath- 

 -*- ering around us. The darkness upon which we are 

 entering is the gloom of a tempest and the night of death 

 to the teeming populations of the globe. A throe of Nature 

 heaves still higher the germinal ridges of the continent, 

 robs the ocean of another strip of his domain, and seals up 

 the record of the life of the Lower Silurian. 



The elevation which marked the close of this great inter 

 val of terrestrial history brought to light the basin of Lake 

 Superior, Northern Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the northern 

 and eastern portions of New York, and considerable por 

 tions of New England. The line of sea-coast passed west 

 ward through Central New York, along the bed of the 

 future Lake Ontario, thence northwestward to Georgian 

 Bay, following the trend of the future Lake Huron, sweep 

 ing round by the Sault Ste. Marie, and arching downward 

 again through Wisconsin along a line a few miles west of 

 the present Lake Michigan. Thence it swept westward 

 and northwestward in the direction of Lake Winnipeg a$d 

 the Arctic Sea. All to the south of this line was yet the 

 empire of the Atlantic. On those vast submarine plains 

 the Pacific joined hands with the Atlantic, and the two 

 sang dirges over the land that was to become the scene 

 of fraternal conflict. 



It might weary the casual reader of geological history 

 to recite the details of the periods which follow. What 

 has been narrated of the birth and death of populations 



