The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-07-22

/ lasted millions of years, the contour of
/ the territory abOuS New York was far
from being as IL is III the year of grace
1871. The ShCre line extended fully 100
miles out further than now. There was
no Long Island Sound That body Of
/ water is comparatively new, having
I been scoODed out during the glacial
! period, probably from 10 600 to 10000
I years ago. Manhattan island it is
4 likely, did not exist as an island. There
/ was apparently no Harlem river. The
I HUDSON, however. was there, it being
very Old, as geological epOchs go. All
( the land about it was approximately
500 feet higher than it is now. TIE
/ lower part Of Manhattan Borough was
under water. but part OF Staten
( island, RE Serpeltine Rock at Ocean
/ IerFace. lowered above. The whole of
New JERSEY, easE-G1d southeast of a
! line from Woodbridge to Trenton, and
thence from Philadelphia as far south
/ as Wilmington, Del. was covered bv
Kind of estuary. a LOdv of fresh
water, not very deep and sometimes
I bracktss1. Salt water only occasionally
I mad access to this inland sea. It is
supposed that far out there was a
great rocky barrier against which the
ocean waves beat now and then. by
some means sending their brine to the
+ interior.
Millions Of years rotated in monton-
Gus succession. The great granite rocks
forming the barrier gradually gave way
70 the onslaught Of the waves. and
little by little, with incredible slowness.
they decompOsed. The minute particles
were swept inward and there. by that
miracle or Infinite patience beyond the
ken of mortal. nature deposited them
TO form clay strata. The sun shone
endlesSiy and the winds blew Leaves
ana seeds and trunks of vegetation
were carried out to this inland sea ana
covered by the inlpressionalble clay.
CycieS upon cyles of time rolled on
Meanwhile bones of reptiles and OF ami
mas We're carried into the ciayey beds
I mere were the mOnStrOus reptiles the
/ lguandon, OF sea serpent fully thirty
rect long, and, when erect, a dozen feet
hlSh- Fhere was the frightfui reptflian
'Dird, the hesperOrnis. and the fish rep
tile bird the ishthyornis. The myth
eal dragon of St. George that occa-
slofeu such. commotion would have
been quite pleasant sight If placed
beside any one of these.
o g .
Gradually, 50 slowly in point Of time
that the few thousands of wears we
| reckon in history are the merest micro
seopical speeks in comparison, the land
became elevated. 1t pushed its way
10 the clouds In some places the con-
tinent was raised thousands of feet.
Inc perpetual summer disappeared. the
sI'4endld forests, the groteSque. reptiles.
tae fast speeding kangaroo and wom-
PAT all vanished Snow and ice en-
Snfouded q great part of the region
Under this chill. bleak embrace of what
IS known as the glacial period, the land
/ lay for long centuries.
fortunately for science, the glaciers.
Whlie sweeping away all vestiges of the
cray cretaceous beds which gathered on
1he lower part Of Manhattan island
when that location was under waiter
ala not go far into New Jersey. and
spared part of what is now Staten
island It is TO this dispensatio as it
were. OF the glaciers that we owe the
preservation Of the clay strata nearby.
ana the consequent finding of the fos-
siis
In other places, such as on Long
lsiaIes fragments Of .cretaceous claws
ana sands sere torn up by the CONT
! mental glacier and carried forward in
the general debris These clays and
sands have become hardened by infiI-
trat1on of limestone on the outside.
II was noticed finally that they con-
tanned Impressions Of leaves and plants
, ana II IS upon the problem Of their
derivation that Professor HOliick and
others have been working recently.
. . g
some of the fragments have been
found at Williamsburg. many others at
Glen Cove, where the ciays are exposed
at the base Of the steep bluffs fronting
the shores All these are precisely the
same as those found in New Jersey.
At some distant time biologists sup
pose Australia was cut off from the
mainland. and thus, more than in any
other land. L retains the primitive
state The kangaroo one Of the earliest
attempts of nature to form the nam
NAL still hops out its days there. Ger
tain trees. similar to those riOting in a
madness Of vegetation here during the
! cretaceous days. prevail there still.
When the land fell IL the course of
time the glaciers melted away and the
present. forms came into existence.
Trees. grew again, reptiles crawled the
EARTH birds eircled in the air. beasts
roamed the forests. but none Of them
IS the same as IN that picturesque time
millions Of years before Hendrix Hud-
son steered his Hair Moon into the har-
bor and the great city, with dts outlying
CONNECTIONS. sprang in5a exisfences