LEDGES. 95 



ferns. You will also learn by examining the 

 coal, or by reading the proper books, that this 

 vegetation grew so long ago that there was not 

 a flower in existence, and all the plant life was 

 flowerless, like our ferns and club mosses. This 

 ledge is millions of years older than the coal 

 mines. To prove this we can show that a series 

 of rocks lies between it and the coal, and they 

 are made up of sand that was formed on the sea- 

 shore. In the Annapolis valley at Nictaux one 

 may see these Devonian rocks packed with fossil 

 shells. This ledge was made of rocks still older ; 

 it belongs to the very lowest or earliest of water- 

 made rocks. The first rocks were cooled lavas, 

 and when an ocean began to surge and break 

 against the low sides of a crumbling crust then 

 sand and mud were formed, and sedimentary rocks 

 were in the making ; our old ledge that runs along 

 like an ancient rib of the earth was then begun. 

 The sullen waves in ceaseless action reduced the 

 shore lines to material that the undertow and tides 

 carried backward, where it fell to the bottom, and 

 by natural action of gravity and elements was 

 assorted in strata or layers of coarse sand and 

 fine muds ; one to form quartzite like the ledge, 

 the other to form slates that we find exposed 

 or hidden running beside them. 



If this earth were a dead body, an unmoving 



