77 
A RECORD OF TIME 
On the bank of a derelict river, within the city limits, 
is a mine of interesting information* It was not 
excavated originally for that purpose, neither is it 
now worked for any such product* The face of the 
towering hill has been cut away, and the cavern of 
dizzy depth and impressive extent scooped out, in 
gathering material to make brick for the cave-dwellers 
of the city* But the diggers have unearthed a record 
that lets in a flood of light on the history of this 
continent* Byron halted in awe when treading on an 
empire's dust* But empires are merely the momen- 
tary lights and shadows across the path of world- 
progress laid bare in this excavation* The story 
begins to grow interesting where the cutting reaches 
the Hudson River rock, which bears the imprint of 
the varied transitions of animal life in its lower forms* 
Time has effected many transformations, but the 
casts of the shells are plain and distinct where the 
yielding mud has been changed to imperishable stone* 
There is the track of a slug-shaped creature that 
moved by corrugating his body and using the ridges 
as feet. The trail where he hurried across the mud 
has escaped obliteration by the rain, and now the firm 
