OBLITERATED CONTINENTS. 137 



certainly had been, dry land, arid land, formed of the 

 first cooled crust of the globe. This has disappeared by 

 the encroachment of heat from beneath. It is possible 

 there was a time when some portion of this primitive lava- 

 crust stood forth above the level of the ancient ocean. It 

 is possible that the old Archaean land is built of the ruins 

 of a fire-formed continent. But I deem it more probable 

 that the Archaean materials have been more than once 

 worked over. But wherever the truth may lie in this re- 

 spect, the very constitution of the oldest rocks which we 

 know proclaims the existence of an obliterated continent. 

 Turn next to this Archaean continent itself. On its own 

 part it reveals a wastage of enormous magnitude. The 

 great sheets of rocky material rest like lumber piled on 

 edge. On opposite slopes of the Laurentide region the 

 strata point up to a meeting place some thousands of feet 

 above the highest levels as they now exist. Clearly, the 

 Laurentide range was at one time a mountain chain which 

 has been planed down to moderate levels by the action of 

 erosive agencies. Turn toward the eastward prolongation 

 of this low range of Canadian hills north of the St. Law- 

 rence. This ancient land abuts against the coast of Lab- 

 rador. But now the navigator brings us new suggestions. 

 The sounding plummet has felt of the ocean's bottom all 

 the way from Newfoundland to Ireland. There is the 

 " telegraphic plateau." On this rests the great Atlantic 

 cable. Here, in this shallow water, along this submerged 

 ridge, do we not discover the stump of the ancient pro- 

 longation of the Archaean land? Are not Newfoundland, 

 Cape Breton, New Brunswick, and the smaller islands of 

 that vicinity, remaining patches of a continental prolon- 

 gation which has been worn down by the waves? And 



