CHAPTER III. 



SEQUENCE OF GEOLOGICAL EVENTS. 



Let US picture to ourselves the succession of the geological 

 events which occurred in this region since Lower Devonian 

 times. 



The Lower Devonian in this part of the countr}^ w^as a 

 limestone making age, when the pure, and presumably warm 

 w^aters of the great interior Paleozoic sea, which stretched 

 from the Adirondacks to the Rocky Alountains, was in- 

 habited by corals, crinoids, and other pure water animals. 

 Miles upon miles of coral reefs stretched across what is now 

 the State of New York, and westw^ard to the Mississippi 

 River, and beyond. All that portion of the "vast American 

 Mediterranean Sea," as Dana has called it, was inhabited b\' 

 myriads of coral-building poWps, w^hich constructed a reef, 

 comparable to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. This 

 ancient reef w^as a barrier reef for the Devonian continent of 

 North America, which la}^ to the north, and which consisted 

 of the old Archeean lands, wnth the additions made during 

 Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian times. 



This ancient coral reef now^ constitutes the Corniferous 

 limestone, wdiich can be traced from Buffalo eastward 

 nearly to the Hudson River, and westward into Missouri 

 and low^a, with a northern spur running up into the penin- 

 sula of Michigan. Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, at that 

 time, seem to have been above water. (Dana). Similar coral 

 reefs were forming in the vSeas which covered portions of 

 New^ England and Canada. 



Dull-colored and unattractive as these ancient coral reefs 

 may seem to-day to the ordinary observer, they nevertheless 

 had beauty once, beauty comparable, if not superior, to that 



