222 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



CHAPTER XX. 



LABORS OF THE ICE-BORN TORRENTS, AND THE OCEAN 

 BURIAL. 



fTTHE manacles of ice were loosened by the genius of a 

 -*- geological spring-time. Next in the order of vicissi- 

 tudes was a grand continental subsidence. Vast areas of 

 Northern America, that had been raised to the altitude of 

 perpetual snow, were gradually lowered to the ocean's 

 level. Again the interchange of equatorial and polar tem- 

 peratures was effected by the moving sea-currents, and the 

 climate of summer smiled over the desolate empire of 

 frost. The rocky glacier yielded to the touch of warmth, 

 and s myriad streams leaped from the bosom of the snow 

 (Fig. 82). Each ice-cold rill united with its fellow, and a 

 deluge of waters set out on their journey to the sea. They 

 wound their way across the future states of Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, and Alabama, to the Gulf. They bore forward 

 a freight of sediments selected from the rubbish bequeathed 

 by the dying glacier, and strewed it over the states that 

 had not been visited by the beneficent action of the ice. 

 Thus the Gulf States and the middle-latitude states shared 

 with the northern regions the materials prepared to serve 

 as the basis of soils in the coming age of thought and in- 

 dustry. These myriad streamlets were, however, unable 

 to bear forward the boulders which had been carried by 

 the ice to the borders of the Southern States. And hence 

 it is that, south of the Ohio, " cobble-stones" are sought in 

 vain. The soil and subsoil possess a degree of fineness 

 and homogeneousness not characteristic of the surface de- 

 posits of the Northern States. In the earlier portion of the 



