66 
THE FERN FORESTS OF 
velop. But thus far the results certainly do not 
sustain the theories which have lately found favor 
among geologists, of entire changes in the rela- 
tive distribution of land and sea and in the con- 
nection of continents with one another ; on the 
contrary, it would appear, that, in accordance 
with the laws of all organic progress, arising from 
a fixed starting-point and proceeding through 
regular changes toward a well-defined end, the 
continents have grown steadily and consistently 
from the beginning, through successive accessions 
in a definite direction, to their present form and 
organic correlations. If, indeed, there is any 
meaning in the remarkably symmetrical combi- 
nations of the double twin continents in the 
Eastern Hemisphere, so closely soldered in their 
northern half, as contrasted with the single pair 
in the Western Hemisphere, isolated in their po- 
sition, but so strikingly similar in their outlines, 
they must be the result of a progressive and pre- 
determined growth already hinted at in the rela- 
tive position and gradual increase of the first 
lands raised above the level of the ocean. 
However this may be, there can be no doubt 
that we now know with tolerable accuracy the 
limits of the land raised above the water in the 
earlier geological periods in the present United 
States. Let us see, then, what we enclose be- 
tween our two lines. We have Newfoundland 
