The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1914-07-10
BIRTH Of A RIVER.
How the St. Lawrence, the Oldest
In the World, Was Formed.
ITS BED WAS MADE TO ORDER.

Nature Saved This, Historic and un.
changing. Stream the Trouble Of Cut.
ting . Channel For lts Course From
the Great Lakes to the Sea.
What is the Oldest river in the world?
The st. Lawrence. 1t is also one of
the few rivers that did not have to
make its. own bed and has remained
unchanged since the very beginning of
the American continent.
Try to think of a time when the
earth was covered by a mass of water,
hot, steaming and often tremendously
disturbed by the throes Of a globe be-
meath it that was shrinking because it
was becoming cooler. As the globe
shrank every particle of the outside
was naturally pulled in toward the
center, and the hardening crust, which
could not be packed any more solidly
than it was. had to wrinkle, sinking
down here and bullying up somewhere
else.
After a time certain Of these rising
wrinkles. or folds. the thicker or firm
er parts of the earth's crust, stood the
strain and became permanent ridges.
The Oldest Of them that biologists
know and apparently the first that
bulged up above the universal ocean
and remained high and dry was the
broad mass on which Canada now
rests. 1t is a part of the. original crust
of the earth. and we al see it today
wherever it is not covered by newer
rocks or soil just as it crystallized and
cooled out of the primeval molten ma
terial.
This mass formed q broad v from
Labrador down to Lake Huron and
thence northwestward to Alaska. On
account Of its shape biologists call it
the Canadian shield. 1t is the oldest
land known and apparently the strong
est. for there are no signs of any ex-
tensive changes in it Except the ear
ing away Of the surface) since 1t first
rolled the ocean OF its shoulders.
OF the eastern coast of this print
tive continent lay a chain of lofty is-
lands about on the line of the Blue
Ridge. the White mountains. the Maine
cJast and Nova Scotia. Between these
islands and the mainland was a trough.
like space that ran from eastern Que
bee southwestward to Ohio. 1t was
two or three hundred miles wide and
filled with a shallow sea, and Just out
side the island chain was the great
hollow that held the Atlantic ocean.
Time went on. For ages the strain
ing and cracking Of the shrinking
globe, earthquakes, sun and frost.
pounding surf, running water, blowing
gales. ice-all labored to tear down the
mountains and carry the wreckage of
rocks and dust away into the valleys
and seas. In this way vast masses Of
rock in layers Of shales. sandstones.
and what not. were laid down in that
narrow. troughlike sea between the
chain of islands and the continent.
All these '~sedimentary" rocks were
soft and weak as compared with the
solid old GRANTEES deeply rooted on
either side Of them, and the trough It.
self. q sagging fold. was a line of
weakness in the crust. As the load of
deposits became heavier and heavier
the door of this trough slowly yielded.
and as It sank toward the heated re
gion below the underside melted and
grew thinner and thinner.
.!That+c0uld not 60 on forever. and.
soon The continual sk1tfihkfng' of the
globe and the enormous pressure Of
the weight Of the ocean became IRE
sistible. The Capadian shield was
1mmovabAe, 90 the rock in the trough
began to bulge or crumple all along its
length. Gradually. not all at once. but
by slow and varying movements. those
folds we're, squeezed up. which in their
broken and worn down form we know
as the Appalachian mountains.
Toward the south there was room
for this action to be rather gentle and
regular, but in the far northeast the
trough was narrow. and the soft rocks
were set on edge, overturned and splin-
tered against the solid continent.
very curly IN Tue suukxl0 u 8teae
fracture Of the earth's crust occurred
here along a curving northeast and
southwest line. 1t left q deep and
broad trench between the crushed and
displaced rocks Of the trough and the
granite shore Of the Canadian shield.
Into this trench rushed all the Interior
waters Of the continent. draining away
to the sea. and the st. Lawrence river
was boenl There, NO doubt. It will ne
main aagf1ong AZ the earth keeps fts
present torn. LAST
At thatseime thereswas no gulf Of st
Lawrence. The land extended out TO