The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-11
MAKING OF MOUNTAINS.
REVOLUTION IN THE EARTHS
HISTORY.
Creation of the Observation-Disclosures
and surely Pushed Up by the Tire
less Efforts of Nature-Just a.
surely Being LeveIed AEnin.


During the carboniferous period the
swamps with their plants and the
sands on which the reptiles were leav-
ing their imprints were as level as
the prairies and the plastic rocks ex-
tended over the whole country. The close
Of this period was marked by general
disturbance and uplift; it was time OF
mountain making both at home and
abroad. The Appalachian chain was ele-
waited and this event has given to geolo-
| gists an expressive term, viz. the epoch
of the Appalachian revolution. Prof. lie
Ccnte says: In America this chain is
the monument Of the greatest revolution
which has taken place in the earths his
tory"
To the east of us strata was folded
into the great waves of the Appalachian
chain. extending from Newfoundland 10
Alabama. This chain is more than 1000
miles long, from so to $50 miles broad and
varies in hight from 1900 to GOO feet. 1t
is not a single elevation extending its
whole length, but consists of several ridges
more or less parallel. with corresponding
troughs between. "A geological section
across our state from east to west shows
a score of mountain waves between the
Atlantic seaboard and the Allegheny
mountains proper, while 10 the west of
the Alleghenies we have Negro mountain.
Laurel hill, Chestnut ridge and many mi
nor waves. which grow smaller and small
er and disappear before our city is reached.
Had the mighty power which folded the
eastern rocks into huge waves extended
its influence to This part of our state our
coal beds, instead OF Deing horizontal,
would have been upheaved at various
| angles and the advantage which Plttsburg
| now possesses in the easy accessibility
| of its coal would have been almost wholly
! lost The many sections made across the
anthracite coal fields show how the coal
] beds originally deposited in a horizontal
/ position have been upturned, folded and
| in many cases topped over or doubled on
| themselves by the great pressure of this
| period.
But the present appearance of the
! ridges and mountains of our state Is no
| criterion of their original hight, for eros
| ion has been active; the snow and rain
of centuries have reduced them in a re-
markable manner. 1t is difficult to esti-
mate the amount of this erosive action,
| but Prof Lesley, speaking of part of
! the main chain near Chambersburg, says:
| THE western side Of the anticlinal has
| been cut off and carried down at least
| 10000 feet into the abyss along a fracture
| 20 miles in length. The eastern side must
| have stood high enough in the air to
make Hindoo Koosh, and all the ma
terials must have been swept into the At
lantic by the denudng flood" Think of
| 10000 feet-higher than any mountain in
| North Amerca-and nearly all OF this re-
moved by the storms of centuries. Truly,
| our present mountain. only 1000 feet in
| hight, is but the stump Of It's former
! grandeur.
1t is the general belief that mountains
| are suddenly shot up like lava from
| volcano, with thunder and lightning and
fire and smoke. Isolated mountains of
| igneous origin are sometimes produced in
| this manner, but mountain ranges are
formed by the slow and gradual wrink-
ling of the earth's crust, bending the plas-
tic rocks into waves large and small
| greatly modifying the surface of our
globe. That the Appalachians were slow
| ly elevated can be clearly shown. Had
man lived at that time no change would
| have been noticed so slow and gradual
was the movement
The idea of bending solid rocks into
| folds may seem impossible Force APP
! piled suddenly to any rock will, of course
| produce fracture, but experiments on a
| large scale have shown that long con-
|
| accompanied by intense heat in the pres
ence of steam and certain chemicals-nota-
| bly, the alkalies-will accomplish wonder
! full results. Our earth is regarded as the
| type of solidity; the solid land and the
! changing sea are synonymous of rest and
motion, but large areas Of the crust of our
| globe are undoubtedly in state of con-
| stapt fiuctuation, as regards fixed level
| OF this we have many Illustrations. The
entire western coast of Greenland, along
| a space of 600 miles, has for the last two
centuries been gradually sinking. Care
| full observations on the coast of the Bal
tic sea show that nearly the whole of
| Norway and Sweden, north of Stockholm
is rising slowly, and has been rising for
| thousands of years, and that the land
south of Stockholm is quietly sinking
Evidence has also been collected show
ing beyond question that the eastern coast
| of South America, from the Rio de la Plata
! to the Straits of Magellan, distance of
| 1000 miles, has been raised III the most
quiet manner, and within comparatively
| recent period, to an elevation of from 100
| to 1,400 feet in hight, and that over vast
| areas of the Pacific and Indian oceans
| a part of the islands are at present ris-
| ing, while others are slowly subsiding
| Proof of similar changes may be observed
in various parts of the United States.
! large portion of the coast of our Southern
Atlantic states is now slowly subsiding
| The evidences are most conspicuous along
the shore of South Carolina and Georgia.
The northern coast of Maine is rising. The
northern coast of Nova Scotia is sinking,
while the southern is rising.
1 In the harbor of Nantucket the upright
stumps of trees are found, eight feet be-
| low the lowest tide, with their roots stir
buried in their native soil Similar ruins
of submarine forests occur on Martha's
Vineyard and on the north side of Cape
! Cod. Along the coast of New Jersey and
Long Island areas embracing thousands
| of acres, can be found in which the bot
| tom of bays and marshes are as thickly
set with the stumps of trees as the ground
of any living forest. These evidences are
along the seaboard. for there only have we
fixed Level for comparison. The interior
of our continent may be slowly rising or
| falling, we cannot tell, for all objects may
be rising or falling together and the
change of level cannot be perceived; oc-
casionally however. the earth's crust sud
denly yields to the constant pressure and
jar or shock, Familiarity known as an
| earthquake, is the result Earthquakes
are quite common. and in certain localities