196 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



rence on the north, and a similar estuary of the embryo 

 Connecticut on the west (Fig. 68). Toward the close of 

 this reign the continent had assumed the similitude of its 

 present form and extent (Fig. 77). The Atlantic coast 

 stretched from the neighborhood of New York City to the 

 Delaware River, and thence southwestward to South Car 

 olina, along a line now sixty or seventy miles inland. Del 

 aware and Chesapeake Bays were consequently out at sea, 

 and the Delaware River emptied into the Atlantic at Tren 

 ton. From South Carolina the shore-line turned gradually 

 westward, and crossed the States of Georgia, Alabama,*and 

 Mississippi at the distance of one or two hundred miles 

 from the present gulf coast. A deep bay set northward 

 along the future valley of the Mississippi River as far as 

 the mouth of the Ohio, or beyond, so that at this time the 

 confluence of those two rivers was at their mouth. West 

 of the Missouri was a vast inland sea or elongated gulf, 

 which stretched along the eastern flanks of the Rocky 

 Mountains to the Arctic Ocean. This gulf was perhaps in 

 terrupted at one or two places by spurs of the mountains. 

 Into this gulf emptied the Athabasca, Slave, and Great 

 Bear Lakes. The upper watershed of the present Missouri 

 was beneath the sea ; and the basin of the Mississippi was 

 more limited in extent than that of the Ohio, which proba 

 bly was the larger stream. West of this Mediterranean 

 Gulf was a broad belt of land stretching from the isthmus 

 far to the northwest, and probably to Behring s Straits, if 

 not across them. The Pacific coast was a hundred and 

 fifty miles farther inland than at present. Lake Superior 

 was the only one of the great lakes then in existence. The 

 stream which drained it wound past the future sites of De 

 troit, Cleveland, and Buffalo, and, plunging over the escarp 

 ment near Lewiston, became the ancestor of the present St. 

 Lawrence. The basins of the other lakes are the result of 



