GEOLOGICAL AGE AND FORMATION, 65 



and much larger log ; and this third lies directly across a 

 fourth, which lies with its cut end partly in the water. By 

 the side of this fourth log an old and decayed stump is 

 shown, from beneath which a fifth log is seen projecting. 

 The stump just mentioned must have grown since the fifth 

 log fell, and yet its roots appear to run under the third log, 

 as if it had grown before the falling of that; while just 

 to the left of this stump, and partly behind the third log, 

 is a second stump, the roots of which grow over the third 

 log, thus showing that it has grown entirely since that 

 has been lying in its present position. Both these stumps 

 are those of trees from two hundred to four hundred years 

 old; and we know not how long since the last one died. 

 By looking at these permanent records of the age of the 

 swamp, we soon come to reckon the time of its accumulation 

 by hundreds, or even thousands of years. And yet this is 

 only the last of a succession of such changes which have 

 left their permanent marks upon this portion of the 

 State; and all of them only carry us back through the 

 last, and what has usually been considered the most in- 

 significant, of all the periods of geological time. 



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