EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE PERIOD OF DRY LAND. 213 
the rains had fallen on the country long enough to carry out ten thousand feet 
of rocks, the extension of these beds to the south, which were cut away, and 
yet before the. overlying Carboniferous rocks were formed as sediments of 
sand and triturated coral reefs, and ground shells and pulverized bones, 
some interesting events occurred, the records of which are well preserved. 
This region of country was fissured, and the rocks" displaced so as to form 
faults, and through the fissures floods of lava were poured, which, on cool 
ing, formed beds of trap, or greenstone. This greenstone was doubtless 
poured out on the dry land, for it bears evidence of being eroded by rains 
and streams prior to the deposition of the overlying rocks. 
Let us go down again, and examine the junction between these red 
rocks, with their intrusive dikes and overlying beds of greenstone, and the 
crystalline schists below. 
We find these lower rocks to be composed chiefly of metamorphosed 
sandstones and shales, which have been folded so many times, squeezed, and 
heated, that their original structure, as sandstones and shales, is greatly 
obscured, or entirely destroyed, so that they are called metamorphic crys 
talline schists. 
Dame Nature kneaded this batch of dough very thoroughly. After 
these beds were deposited, after they were folded, and still after they were 
deeply eroded, they were fractured, and through the fissures came floods of 
molten granite, which now stands in dikes, or lies in beds, and the metamor 
phosed sandstones and shales, and the beds of granite, present evidences of 
erosion subsequent to the periods just mentioned, yet antecedent to the 
deposition of the non-conformable sandstones. 
Here, then, we have evidences of another and more ancient period of 
erosion, or dry land. Three times has this great region been left high and 
dry by the ever shifting sea; three times have the rocks been fractured and 
faulted; three tunes have floods of lava been poured up through the crevices, 
and three times have the clouds gathered over the rocks, and carved out 
valleys with their storms. The first time was after the deposition of the 
schists; the second was after the deposition of the red sandstones; the third 
time is the present time. The plateaus and mountains of the first and 
second periods have been destroyed or buried; their eventful history is lost; 
the rivers that ran into the sea are dead, and their waters are now rolling as 
