77 



A RECORD OF TIME 



On the bank of a derelict river, within the city limits, 

 is a mine of interesting information. It was not 

 excavated originally for that purpose, neither is it 

 now worked for any such product. The face of the 

 towering hill has been cut away, and the cavern of 

 dizzy depth and impressive extent scooped out, in 

 gathering material to make brick for the cave-dwellers 

 of the city. But the diggers have unearthed a record 

 that lets in a flood of hght on the history of this 

 continent. Byron halted in awe when treading on an 

 empire's dust. But empires are merely the momen- 

 tary lights and shadows across the path of world- 

 progress laid bare in this excavation. The story 

 begins to grow interesting where the cutting reaches 

 the Hudson River rock, which bears the imprint of 

 the varied transitions of animal life in its lower forms. 

 Time has effected many transformations, but the 

 casts of the shells are plain and distinct where the 

 yielding mud has been changed to imperishable stone. 

 There is the track of a slug-shaped creature that 

 moved by corrugating his body and using the ridges 

 as feet. The trail where he hurried across the mud 

 has escaped obliteration by the rain, and now the firm 



