Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1878-11-14

erosion ana proofs OF elevation. A GENIAL
climate then prevailed to the Arctic sea,
and all the continent was covered with
more luxuriant flora, and inhabited by a
more varied fauna than can be found any
where on its surface. This was, indeed,
for America, the golden age of animals
and plants, and in all respects but one
the absence of man--the country was
more interesting and picturesque than
now.
We must imagine that the hill
and valleys about the present site of New
York were covered with noble trees, and
a dense underground Of species, for the
most part different from those now living
there; and that these were the homes and
feeding-grounds of many kind of quadru-
peds and birds, which have long since be-
come extinct. The broad plain which
sloped gently seward from the highlands
must have been covered with a sub-tropi-
cal forest of giant trees and tangled vines
teeming with animal life. This state of
things doubtless continued through many
thousands of years, but ultimately a
change came over the fair face of Nature
more complete and terrible than we have
language to describe. From causes
which are not yet fully understood, and
into the discussion of which we cannot
here enter, the climate of the northern
hemisphere became gradually more
severe. and that of Greenland, from be.
ing what iHhad been for ages, like that of
our Southern States, became arctic, as we
now find it, and its luxuriant forests
were replaced by fields snow and ice.
But the change did not stop',here, for with
increasing cold the icesheets spread
southwark and covered successfully the
mountains of Labrador, the canadian
highlands, and the hills of New England
and New York. At the elimination Of
the glacial period the ice reached as far
south as Staten Island and Trenton. and
all the country north of this line was
buried under great moving mass of ice
in places several thousand feet in thick
ness. At this time the present climate of
Greenland had been transferred to New
York; in the strongest possible contrast
to the earlier time when the present eli
mate of New York prevailed in Green
land.
In the advent of the ice period not only
were all kinds of animals and plants ex-
terminated or driven southwark, and thus
what had been paradise was converted
into bowling wilderness, but even the
topography of the country was greatly
modified. The ice sheets moving from
the north ground down or rounded over
all the projecting rock masses, and filled
up valleys with the debris, producing
great abrasion, in some places, anil accu-
mutations in others, until the whole face
of the country was changed. In the vi
cinity of New York the ice moved from
north-north- to south southeast, and
was of such thickness that it crossed the
trough of the Hudson diagonally, and
probably because this had been filled I'd
with transported material, was by it lit
tie detected from its course. In other
localities the old river valleys we're some
times completely obliterated, and the
drainage of the surface given new chan
nels and even new direction. To this
cause we may attribute the blocking up
OF the old line Of drainage from the lake
basin through the Hudson, and its diver
sion to the present course of the St. Law
renee. Now that the glaciers have left
the far north, we everywhere see evidence
of the stupendeous changes they wrought
in the country over which they moved.
North of the line which marks the mar
gin OF the glacies we find the contour
lines rsunded over and softened, ridges
of grant converted into domes, and the
hardest rock grooved and striatcd, o.
ground smooth and even polished. The
whole surface of New York Island, where
the rock is exposed, shows marks of gla
cial action, the upturned edges of gueiss
being ground Of to form a nearly plain
surface, or where ridges Of more massive
rock had existed, these are rounded over
to form r0ches naout0nnees. Fine exam
Piles of the latter may be seen in Central
Park, and on the east side of the Island
near Harlem"