PROOFS OF ANTIQUITY, 



119 



Among other absurd reveries of European authors 

 respecting North America, none is more ridiculous 

 than that respecting the recent formation of the con- 

 tinent, which is oy some strenuously maintained. The 

 geological reader will find many proofs to support a 

 contrary opinion, in the account of the structure of 

 the mountains of North America, which is detailed 

 in the preceding pages, and it may be well to fur- 

 nish a few more. 



We have every reason to believe that our con- 

 tinent was totally metamorphosed by the first con- 

 vulsion of nature, at the time of the deluge ; and that 

 the fountains of the great deep were broken u{i. 

 Hence vast piles of mountains were thrown together 

 from the floating ruins of the earth ; and hence the 

 fossil shells and marine exuviae found on the tops of 

 our mountains. Petrified marine shells and coralline 

 substances are found on the west bank of the Mis- 

 sissippi, between St. Genevieve and St. Louis. These 

 various animal exuviae are connected by a calcareous 

 cement. 



From the vicinity of the great salt works, five 

 miles below St. Genevieve, on the hills, and at the 

 bottoms of the brooks which run from them, a very 

 curious siliceous stone, full of animal remains, has 

 been brought. It strikes fire with steel, is of a 

 whitish colour, and of a quality intermediate be- 

 tween quartz and flint. It is perforated with conical 

 holes, some of which are empty, and others appa- 

 rently filled up with the remains of some pelagian 

 animal, probably the belemnites.* 



* The country up the Mississippi^ (as Mr. Ayres who visitsd ii'» 



