viii PREFACE. 



letter in the short alphabet of geology. It tells in few 

 words of the growth of an island, the silting tip of an 

 ancient channel and gradual deepening of a new one. 

 A sand-bar is the initial point in the growth of a foot- 

 hold for man, for the fructifying -sun will soon prompt 

 to vigorous growth the chance-lodged seeds. The aquat- 

 ic grasses will in time give way to hardier growths. A 

 tide-borne acorn will become an oak, and where in cen- 

 turies past the Indian floated his canoe, in centuries to 

 come the farmer will guide his plough. 



If earth knowledge is desirable, if we would not be 

 strangers in our own land, let us not think ill of the mis- 

 chance when lodged upon a sand-bar. If we leave it 

 wiser, we leave it happier ; and what else, pray, has life 

 to offer? 



If the reader has followed me thus far, he knows now 

 the approximate metes and bounds of Mechen-tschiho- 

 lens-sipu, and, what is of more importance, the author's 

 impelling motive in spending so many days and even 

 nights there and thereabout. I trust that the reader's 

 patience is not exhausted as he turns this page, and hope 

 that what follows may meet with his approbation. 



CCA. 



Prospect Hill, Tkenton, N. J., 

 January 12, 1887. 



