Preface 



or reversal of the gravitation that unchecked 

 would carry the continents through river courses 

 to the sea, and make the surface of the globe a 

 wilderness of waters. 



How nearly does this story of storm and 

 battle touch us all ! Here these forces have 

 lifted ttie backbone of America, which all the 

 storms of ages leave a backbone still. There, 

 in mid-ocean, they bid a Bermuda spring to light 

 and life. Anon they decree a Sahara, or an 

 Arizonian desert, where only the cactus may 

 take root, with all the hardiness and much the 

 semblance of it companion, the reptile of the 

 sands. In all this shifting scene were long ago 

 decided the barrenness of the mountain chains, 

 the fertility of plain and prairie ; such continuity 

 of river bed and valley, such shelter for the deep 

 waters of a bay, as predetermined the foundations 

 of New York. , 



GEORGE ILES. 



xvn 



