THROUGH THE GEOLOGIST'S EYES 



If the original granite is the father of the rocks, 

 the sea is the mother. In her womb they were ges- 

 tated and formed. Had not this seesaw of land 

 and ocean taken place, there could have been no con- 

 tinental growth. Every time the land took a bath 

 in the sea, it came up enriched and augmented. Each 

 new layer of rocky strata taken on showed a marked 

 change in color and texture. It was a kind of -evolu- 

 tion from that which preceded it. Whether the land 

 always went down, or whether the sea at times came 

 up, by reason of some disturbance of the ocean floors 

 in its abysmal depths, we have no means of knowing. 

 In any case, most of the land has taken a sea bath 

 many times, not all taking the plunge at the same 

 time, but different parts going down in successive 

 geologic ages. The original granite upheavals in 

 British America, and in New York and New Eng- 

 land, seem never to have taken this plunge, except 

 an area about Lake Superior which geologists say 

 has gone down four or five times. The Lauren- 

 tian and Adirondack ranges have never been in 

 pickle in the sea since they first saw the light. In 

 most other parts of the continent, the seesaw be- 

 tween the sea and the land has gone on steadily 

 from the first, and has been the chief means of the 

 upbuilding of the land. 



To the slow and oft-repeated labor-throes of the 

 sea we owe the continents. But the sea devours her 

 children. Large areas, probably continental in ex- 



109 



