CRETACEOUS PERIOD. 



479 



peake bays were out at sea. From the Delaware, it continued south- 

 westward, at a distance of sixty miles or more from the present coast- 



Fig. 874. 



North America in the Cretaceous period ; MO, Upper Missouri region. 



line between New Jersey and South Carolina. It next turned west- 

 ward, being about one hundred miles from the Atlantic in Georgia, 

 Tiearly two hundred miles from the Gulf in Alabama, and still more 

 remote from the Western Gulf shore in Texas. The Appalachians 

 stood at a less elevation than now, by sixty to six hundred feet. 



The Gulf of Mexico, as the map illustrates, was prolonged north- 

 ward, along the valley of the Mississippi, nearly to the mouth of the 

 Ohio, making here a deep bay. Into it the two great streams entered, 

 with only the mouth in common ; and probably the Ohio was the 

 larger, as its whole water-shed had nearly its present elevation and 

 extent, while the Mississippi area was very limited. More to the 

 westward, from the region of Texas, the Gulf expanded to a far 

 greater breadth and length, stretching over much of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, which was therefore so far submerged. It reached at 

 least to the head-waters of the Yellowstone and Missouri (which 

 rivers were, therefore, not in existence) ; and, judging from isolated 

 observations in British America, the waters may have continued north- 



