The anti-monopolist., 1875-08-16
SCIENCE
GEOLOGICAL CHANGES.
The Elevation OF Nearly all Parts OF the
Earth's Surface Altering.


The Elevation OF Nearly all Parts OF the
Earth's Surface Altering.
The following article is quoted from the
Hartford Times:
Captain James Riley's Hartford brig
Commerce was wrecked on the African
coast Of Morocco in the year 1873, and Cap
tain Riley and some Of his companions were
captured by the Arabs and driven on loot
across large section Of the .'Great Desert
of Sahara. Capt. Riley, amidst all his sui.
ferings in the interior Of the Desert, could
not fail to notice and be deaply impressed
by the remarkable Typographical features
presented at certain distances, somewhat
widely separated and all indicating unmis-
takably that the Desert itself once formed
the bottom Of sea.
In ssRiley's Narrative,'' book that was
received with some incredulity at the time,
but which is sustained in its more import
ant statements by later revelations. these
typographical phenomena Of the desert are
described as consisting Of far-sweeplng
lines of lew terraces presenting exactly the
appearance, that the observer could not re
sist the conviction that these receding ter
races were in fact what were in former ages
lines of shore which marked the succee-
sive limits of an ancient sea.
In other words it was seemingly evident
that the ..Great Desert"-a region thou
sand miles wide, aud more than two thou
sand miles long-had arisen, like the myth
ological Venus, from the waves; not in beau
ty, like the Grecian Aphrodite, but in all
the horrors of naked, burning plain, its
inhospitable bosom presenting only hard
and stony surfaces, alternating with drifting
sands Its higher terraces, Of course, were
the first to be lifted out OF the sea; then in
due order, and at unknown intervales,
came the others-until the existing line
was reached and even that seems to be slow
" changing.
In fact, constant change seems to be 60
ing on in the elevation Of nearly all parts
of the earth surface-some regions rising,
others very unmistakably sinking. In the
latter class, very certainly, appears the
greater part Of our Atlantic coast, from
Cape Cod to Florida. The Connecticut
shore, from Connecticut river to New York,
as il existed before the Reyoluti ouary war,
is now covered by the waters of Long Is
land Sound, near two rods out from the
present shore. =
the sea now coming up to places that
were three rods from the water in l11O. II
is said by some geologists that the greater
part Of the present islands known as the
West Indies are really but the higher por
tions of a vast sunken region that once
formed part of the American continent
Nearer home, the region around the Great
Lakes is also said to be slowly sinking
| while southern Indiana, Kentucky and thu
surrounding states are rising.
| 1t is found that the great Lakes once hac
| a southern outlet. Now they discharge theil
water, not through the Mississippi into thu
Gulf, but through the Niagara river, Lake
Ontario and the St. Lawrence, into the chill
seas Of the north The great channel know
as the Niagara river seems to have beer
formed as recently as forty or fifty thous
and years ago, and the outlet of al the lake
above Lake Ontario to have been simultane
ously changed from the southern to tn
northern gulf-from the Gulf of Mexico +
the Gulf Of St. Lawrence-by northern de
pressions and southern upheavals.
These changes are governed by no know
law of relationship. California, particular
", and all the Pacific coast to a lesser ex
tent, are found 10 be rising But the Who'll
bed of the vast Pacific, according to recen
deep sea soundings, is evidently sunke
continent, with numerous volcanic noun
tains In Europe, the coast and bottom Q
the Baltic sea are rising-the ancient shore
being now nearly half mile from the wa
ter; but the shores Of Holland, France an
Great Britain are Enthusiastically sinking
Greenland. sort of continent in itself,
said to be rising.
The fact is. and geology shows it, tha
the earth's surface of sea and land has bee
fer unknown ages constantly changing
Slow upheavals Of what at first were island
have been followed BY the equally slow. IN
creasing appearance of continents; and thes
have slowly sunk and disappeared, and Q
slowly risen again-only TO sink and ris'
and this vast process has gone on, with son
ever occurring changes in the outlines OF Il
land. for countless ages. And IT is still g.
ing on.