230 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



present level at Montreal. At lower levels, down to twen- 

 ty-five or thirty feet, the traces of standing waters have 

 been observed about New England and Long Island. At 

 one time the Atlantic flowed up the valley of the St. Law- 

 rence to Montreal, and whales sported in an arm of the sea 

 which reached over the valley of Lake Champlain. The 

 ancient beaches have been traced all around those earlier 

 borders of the land. 



The last portion of this upward movement has been in 

 times comparatively recent. We are neither to suppose 

 that the work was suddenly and violently performed, nor 

 that it is even yet complete. The secular elevations now 

 known to be progressing at various points along our coast 

 are but a continuation of the action which rescued our con- 

 tinent from the jaws of the ocean, and which may be far- 

 ther continued for many centuries. Who knows how much 

 land may yet be added to the northeastern border of 

 America ? Who can say that Newfoundland may not yet 

 become a peninsula joined to the main land, or that the 

 ancient submerged prolongation of our continent may not 

 be again resurrected ? New England may cease to be " lit- 

 tle New England," and may boast of as many acres as the 

 " Great West" — or at least that portion of it covered by 

 the organized states. However, New Englanders ought 

 not to indulge too sanguine expectations in this respect. 



Around the Gulf-border of our country the indications 

 of future extension are of a more reliable character. In 

 one region the delta of the Mississippi is continuing to 

 push itself seaward. Materials are being transferred from 

 the Rocky Mountains to Louisiana. The Mississippi is an- 

 nually building out into the Gulf. From the same source 

 arises another and an unexpected development of land 

 upon another portion of the Gulf-border. Vast quantities 

 «f the finer sediments of the Mississippi are floated out into 



