TIME AND CHANGE 
son at New York. There is a great break here — 
a leap from Archzean times on the east side to Meso- 
zoic times on the west. The east side is millions 
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. 
