TIME AND CHANGE 



son at New York. There is a great break here — 

 a leap from Archaean times on the east side to Meso- 

 zoic times on the west. The east side is milHons 

 of years the older. Here is the original Plutonic 

 or Azoic rock which apparently has never been un- 

 der the sea since it was first thrust up out of the 

 fiery depths. The west shore, including the Palisades, 

 belongs to a much later geologic era. The original 

 granite here is buried under vast deposits of sedi- 

 mentary rock of the Triassic age — the age of the 

 giant reptiles, the remains of one of which has re- 

 cently been found embedded in this sandstone, near 

 the river's edge. As the traveler's eye follows along 

 the even, almost level line of this escarpment of the 

 Palisades, let it re-create for him the strata of the old 

 Triassic sandstone that were millions of years ago 

 piled high upon it, — how high can only be conject- 

 ured, — but which have been removed grain by grain 

 under the eroding power of the forces of air and water 

 that now seem to caress the huge wall so gently. Ah ! 

 geologic Time, what can it not do? what has it not 

 done? The old sill of Vulcan now presents a nearly 

 vertical front to the Hudson, forming the Palisades, 

 showing that some leaves of the earth's history here 

 are missing, buried probably beneath the waters of 

 the river. There is evidently a line of fault here, 

 and the west side has been lifted up out of the old 

 Mesozoic seas, probably in the convulsions that 

 poured out the lava of the trap rock. 



