No. 23.] CENTRAL CONNECTICUT IN THE GEOLOGIC PAST. 43 



strength. The cloud-dwelling god of thunder and rain was never 

 conquered, but bided his time, and, slowly tearing down the 

 structures built by the Titans, brought to an end the Archean. 

 The dominance of Zeus and Poseidon, the gods of the outer 

 world, was now established for all time: the reign of the Titans 

 was ended, and that orderly sequence of the strata was begun 

 which records the history of the earth and the life that dwells 

 thereon. 



Still, the re-imprisoned Titans are seen from age to age to 

 bend and break and lift their prison roof, seeking to raise them- 

 selves anew in defiance of the lords of rain and sea. But never, 

 since the world-wide misrule marked by the Archean rocks, have 

 they mastered the surface of the earth. The igneous rocks which 

 are poured out are soon buried or swept away, and the mountains 

 which are raised again toward heaven are fleeting features on the 

 surface of the ancient earth. 



But it is only because of this eternal conflict that all life of the 

 land has found existence. The currents of air and water tend 

 to make equable the climates of the zones, and, as rain, the water 

 sustains the life of the lands. Air and water break down the 

 rocks into soil, the life-nourishing mantle of Earth. As it becomes 

 impoverished of soluble matters, it is with equal pace worn away 

 from above and rejuvenated from the .rocks below. The forces of 

 uplift and of igneous activity widen the land areas and renew their 

 elevations. The escaping gases enrich the atmosphere with car- 

 bon dioxide and thus provide the gaseous food of plants. Let 

 the sun-born forces resign their rule, and a speedy death would 

 sweep over the surface of the world. Let the fettered Titans 

 cease their striving, and in a few short geologic ages the wasted 

 lands would be invaded by the sea. The water would have 

 widened like the air into a universal envelope; at last would be 

 stilled through nature the reverberations of the ever-sounding 

 sea, and Poseidon, another child of Cronus, would come to share 

 with Zeus supreme dominion of the world. 



Land life, as shown, only finds existence because of the world 

 conflict, and in its midst. But beyond mere existence there has 

 prevailed that law of progress which has built up flower, beast, 

 bird, and man from the same primal germ. This law too rests 

 upon the same eternal struggle, because life tends always to be- 



