THE LONG ROAD 



river valleys and gorges — cut a mile deep in the 

 Colorado canyon, and yet this canyon is but of yes- 

 terday in geologic time. Only give the evolutionary 

 god time enough and all these miracles are surely 

 wrought. 



Truly it is hard for us to realize what a part time 

 has played in the earth's history, — just time, dur- 

 ation, — so slowly, oh, so slowly, have the great 

 changes been brought about! The turning of mud 

 and silt into rock in the bottom of the old seas seems 

 to have been merely a question of time. Mud does 

 not become rock in man's time, nor vegetable mat- 

 ter become coal. These processes are too slow for us. 

 The jflexing and folding of the rocky strata, miles 

 deep, under an even pressure, is only a question of 

 time. Allow time enough and force enough, and a 

 layer of granite may be bent like a bow. The crys- 

 tals of the rock seem to adjust themselves to the 

 strain, and to take up new positions, just as they do, 

 much more rapidly, in a cake of ice under pressure. 

 Probably no human agency could flex a stratum of 

 rock, because there is not time enough, even if there 

 were power enough. "A low temperature acting 

 gradually," says my geology, " during an indefinite 

 age would produce results that could not be other- 

 wise brought about even through greater heat.'* 

 **Give us time," say the great mechanical forces, 

 "and we will show you the immobile rocks and your 

 rigid mountain chains as flexible as a piece of 



9 



