The Glacial Phenomenon 



AS EXHIBITED IN 



NORTHERN INDIANA AND SOUTHERN MICHIGAN 



and the Resulting Ancient Waterways, 

 or the Early History of Our Home, 



By HUGH T. MONTGOMERY, M. D., 

 Read before the Historical Society, January 2. 1899. 



ANY years ago, there was raised up out of the Ocean, a 

 strip of land along the eastern border of North Amer- 

 ica, lying east of the eastern slope of the Appalachian 

 range of Mountains, and extending to an unknown distance 

 eastward. Also a land mass comprising all of Labrador, and 

 most of the Canadas, then taking a northwesterly course to the 

 upper border of the present outline of North America, thus 

 forming a large V shaped body of land. There was also a long 

 narrow strip of land located about the central part of the 

 western half of the present continent. These masses of land 

 are known to be the oldest of the continent, by their being 

 composed of the oldest rocks presented on the earth's surface, 

 and all other rocks are found lying upon, or above them. 

 Between these strips of land on the east and the west, there 

 remained yet a vast ocean. This was the interior or Great 

 Palseozoic sea, and the age was known as the Archaean period, 

 or the beginning At this time there was being spread upon the 

 bottom of this interior sea, the lime, sand, mud, and shell depos- 

 its, which were to constitute the series of Palaeozoic rocks which 

 now lie beneath us. But the bed of this interior sea with the 

 land masses which had already emerged was destined to 

 become a great continent. The Archaean lands were pushing 

 higher and higher, and the interior sea was becoming more and 

 more shallow; finally, after the lapse of ages, the sea bottom 

 began to peep above the waters, and the surface of Indiana 

 for the first time in the history of the world, so far as has been 

 revealed to the mind of man, first appeared as dry land. From 

 this time on, through a long series of years, it was alternately 

 depressed and re-elevated. During its periods of elevation, its 



