62 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



will be rendered intelligible to all by the explanations in 

 the text. 



There seems to be but little poetry in the attempt to un- 

 ravel the thread of chemical reactions which followed each 

 other upon the earth in those dim and twilight ages ; but 

 it is certainly an inspiring development of late researches 

 that the sceptre which chemistry sways over the modern 

 world is the same which she wielded over the mute atoms 

 of the forming crust. 



It appears, from what has been suggested, that a portion 

 of those ancient strata originated from sediments mechan- 

 ically deposited, and another portion from chemical precip- 

 itates thrown down while the elements were adjusting 

 themselves according to their strongest affinities. 



The reader should not imagine that the proofs of these 

 things are afar off. They lie within the scope of his own 

 observation and verification. If you can *not gaze upon 

 the frowning summit of Katahdin, or the dark and lichen- 

 covered sides of the Adirondacs, nor the upturned piles of 

 stony lumber which make the ridges of the Appalachians, 

 nor the acres of rocky floor torn up for your inspection 

 along the shores of the upper lakes, examine some of the 

 specimens which Nature has brought from those northern 

 regions to your very doors. Scattered over your fields 

 may be found fragments of the underlying unstratified 

 granite and sienite, diorite and dolerite. Here, too, are 

 fragments of rocks formed of the same constituents as 

 these, but under a stratified arrangement. The most 

 striking of these are the gneisses, where the various col- 

 ored minerals set forth the stratification with distinctness. 

 These came from the thick beds resting upon the crystal- 

 line foundation of the earth's crust. They are the ruins — 

 a second time ruined — of some ancient rocky shore which 

 the fury of the elements has reduced to sand. Here are 



