

246 WALKS AND TALKS. 



early morning, or lolling under the noonday shade of some 

 wide-spreading and umbrageous Lepidodendron. 



At the entrance of the bay was an exposed headland. 

 \ From this the high beach stretched away for miles ; and 

 already the older coal deposits were exposed along the eroded 

 cliffs. Here the waves pounded up beds of sandstone, shale, 

 and coal. The sands were deposited along the beach which 

 faced the open sea. The finer and lighter materials were 

 floated off in search of a quieter nook. In the bay they found "^ 

 a retreat from wind and waves, and there laid themselves 

 down in a mixture of comminuted coal and clay. In a later J 

 age, the deposit was a bed of cannel coal. 



Why prolong the tale? The land continued to oscillate as 

 long as the purification of the air was incomplete. Again and 

 again, the forest resumed its work, and bed after bed was stored 

 away beneath ocean sediments, to await the end. When the 

 beneficent work had been accomplished, the tired forces, that 

 had endured with trembling and vibrations, the enormous 

 strain that had been accumulating under the prolonged con- 

 traction of the interior, yielded with a tremendous collapse 

 which jarred the hemisphere. Huge folds of the massive 

 crust uprose, and were mashed together till their crests pierced 

 the clouds. This was the birth of the Appalachians. This \ 

 event proclaimed the end of the long Palaeozoic ^Eon. Only / 

 the stumps of those folds remain to-day. Though crumbling, / 

 they stand as monuments of the mighty throes through which I 

 the world was prepared for man and civilization. 



XL/HI. THE R.EF>TILE MONARCHIES. 



MESOZOIC EVENTS. 



THE storm is cleared, and a new sky overhangs the scene. 

 We seem to be in another world. We glance over the terri- 

 tory lately covered by luxuriant coal-vegetation, and Cycads, 

 and Voltzias now hold possession. The Cyciids ;m i palmetto- 

 like in form, fern-like in foliage, and pine-like in affinities; the 



