The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1885-07-10
THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
A Picture of Our Continent just Befo re
Advent OF IL umAn Life.

| A Picture OF Our Continent just Befo re the
Advent Of Human Life.
The coming years work Of the geological
survey has been mapped out by Major Powell,
and the plans have received the approval of
Secretary Lamar. The work Of tine map max
ers, while serving the many ends, state and mu-
nicipal, of the most exact geographical surveys
upon large scale, is, so far as the government
| is concerned, merely designed to lay the neces-
sary foundation for the studies OF the savants
Of the institution. The early functions OF the
geological survey, and of the organizations
which a few years ago were merged into 1t,
| we're limited to the survey and study OF the
public domain, and of the 100000 square miles
about One-fifth of the area Of the Union--al-
ready covered by the surveyors and biologists,
| SOC, 900 lie west of the Tooth meridian. This
region has proved a rare school of science, the
physical conditions having been such as TO pre-
serve unchanged the earliest rock forms, SO that
the history of the globe far back toward its
genesis may be read from the mountain sides
| as from an open book. When the stu ly was
begun there was nothing in geological literature
| to show that similarly favorable regions existed
elsewhere, and 1t was for time believed that
our plateau districts were in many respects
| uniqus 1t is now known, however, that por-
tons of Abyssinia, of northern Spain, Of Chi
ma and OF the Great Sahara, present like condi-
tons, both as to the formations and their state
of preservation.
The picture outline of the young continent in
quaternary time, just before the advent of hu
man life into which, as one Of series, these
scientific men are now painting the details, has
but few familiar features. The great mountain
systems were already uplifted and we're vastly
more rugged and higher than now. The south
ern sea, now the Gulf of Mexico, had possession
of an immense strip OF the lower country, and
of the great valley and the Atlantic coast. The
Pacific slope was q region Of steep glaciers.
The Great Basin was an inland ocean, or rather
two great inland seas were found within it, of one
of which the Great Salt Lake is petty rem
nant. This region and that to the south, new
so sterile and dry, was then one or great hu-
midity, and where not covered with water was
very fertile. An ice sheet extended over the
| northern portion of the eastern and middle
country, covering the great lakes anu the Dor
dering regions to the south for hundreds OF
miles. Continually moving southwark, this
| sheet deposited its cargoes Of detrituS century
after century, forming the subsoilS of what are
now the eastern, middle and northwestern
| states, and heaped up terminal lnoralne, still
| DISTINCTLY traCehDle as u range VI
| New Jersey, Pennsylvania Ohio, Illinois, Iowa,
and thence northwestward along the present
line of the Missouri through Dakota and up
into the British possessions. Great tongues of
ice shot off from this sheet far to the southwark,
while an island region, containing much of the
present state of Wisconsin, remained bare.
There were, in fact two great ice periods, with
an intervening season longer than the time which
has elapsed since the disappearance of the last
| sheet, and during the intervals forests OF large
conifers covered the face of the earth. Long
Island, which was created by glacial deposits,
marks the southeastern limit OF the sheet.
The climatic conditions of the country south
of the great ice belt were much the same as at
present, and the flora was similar, though CO.
| niferous growths were proportiOnately much
more abundant. Through the forests along the
borders Of the ice sheet rOamed strange AMI.
mails, among which were the huge hairy and
more than elephantine mammoth; the horse,
smaller animal than his relative OF to-day, hay
ing well forward hoofs, but still bearing in ru-
dimentary form one or two of the toes OF MS
primeval ancestors; the great buffalo, two or
three times larger than his descendant OF to-
day &; the pig, more nearly resembling the pee
cary OF South America than the familiar hog
OF our own country, and other creatures curl
onsly related to the modern camel and rhinoce-
ros Then came man, but his early footprints
are too few and indistinct to reveal within "a
thousand years just when he came, while
| whence and how he came few venture even TO