THE LONG ROAD 
river valleys and gorges — cut a mile deep in the 
Colorado canyon, and yet this cariyon 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 flexing 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 
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