Al'l'ALACIIIAN MOUNTAINS. 47 



few scattered peaks, '' rari nantcs in gi.rgitc vasto," outlining 

 what we now call llie A[)))alachian Mountain System. 



It was at the time when, as we learn I'roni the earliest 

 written geological record, " God said : ' Let th 3 waters under 

 the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and lot the 

 dry land appear;' and it was so." 



For countless ages, '' chaos and old night," had enwrapped 

 the globe. Its molten billows had surged and tossed in mad 

 turmoil, while enveloping clouds of murky vapors hid the 

 fiery mass from sight. 



But as ages pass away, and radiation into space cools the 

 glowing sphere, the vapors become less dense, the light di- 

 vides from the d;irkness, and a crust forms over the liquid 

 globe, soon to be rent by internal convulsion, upheaved or 

 .submerged by the gigantic forces at work, partially melted 

 and again solidilicil. till at length a continental basis is as- 

 sured. 



Now, with still diminishing heat, the aqueous vapor be- 

 gins to condense, forming oceans, and this first great and 

 final differentiation into land and sea is accomplished. 



The V-shaped Laurentian Highlands appear, constitu- 

 ting the back bone of the continent, and determining the 

 direction of its future extension, while parallel with the 

 eastern arm, emerge the peaks now seen in the Adirondacks 

 of New York, the Highlands of New Jerse)^ portions of the 

 Blue Ridge of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the regions far- 

 ther southwest, including the Black Hills of North Taro- 

 lina. 



Around the bases of these peaks was doubtless, even then, 



*a great mass of gneissoid and quartzose rocks, making 



great shoals and forming a long line of barrier reefs, }>ro- 



tecting the quiet interior basin l'r<>ni flic fmv of the jiplaizif 



waves. 



As succeeding ages rolled away, in the slowly sinking 

 trough on the west, were deposited during Silurian, Devo- 

 nian and Carboniferous ages, strata of sandstones, lime- 

 stones, conglomerates, shales, beds of iron and coal, aggre- 

 gating in some places 40.<*0() feet, till at the close of 



