132 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



rocks have been reclothed with fresh materials for vegeta- 

 ble sustenance; the surface is again strewed with vapor- 

 making lakes, and plants and animals, and man himself, 

 find in the renovated continent the fitting conditions of 

 their prosperity. 



But this last stage of things can no more be perma- 

 nent than that which has preceded. The present conti- 

 nent is destined to experience the symptoms of senescence 

 and decay. Every year the untiring streams transport 

 new portions of the land into the bottom of the ocean. 

 The Alleghanies mingle their tribute to the sea with that 

 which is yielded by the distant Rocky Mountains. 



" The Father of Waters 

 Seizes the hills in his hands and drags them down to the ocean." 



From age to age the mountain-tops are descending to the 

 plain; the rounded hills are shrinking; the gorges are deep- 

 ening; the changing vegetal growths are responding to 

 the changing conditions; the present is passing away; once 

 more the wrinkles of age will furrow the face of the con- 

 tinent, and the populous organisms which had found a 

 fitting home upon it will exist no more. The valley of 

 the Mississippi is no more fertile than was once the valley 

 of the Colorado. We read in the present condition of the 

 latter the destiny which awaits the former. The slow but 

 inevitable steps are in progress before our eyes. The 

 " image of eternity " can be discerned neither in the ocean, 

 which is but an instrument for the accumulation of solid 

 land, nor in the rocky foundations of the land, which 

 from cycle to cycle are re-wrought into the masonry of 

 renovated continental surfaces. Man himself, who popu- 

 lates but one of these successive " time-worlds," is destined 



