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 
