The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1914-06-02
BIRTH OF A RIVER.
How the st. Lawrence, the Oldest
In the World, Was Formed.
IT'S BED WAS MADE TO ORDER.

Nature Saved This Historic and un-
changing Stream the Trouble Of Cut
ting Channel For its 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 time when the
earth was covered by mass of water.
hot, steaming and often tremendously
disturbed by the throes of globe be-
meath II that was shrinking because 1t
was becoming cooler. AS the globe
shrank every particle Of the outside
was naturally pulled In toward the
senter. and the hardening crust, which
could not be packed any more soiidly
than 1t was. had to wrinkle. sinking
down here and bulging up somewhere
else.
After time certain Of these rising
wrinkles. or folds. the thicker or fiEm-
er parts of the earth's crust, stood the
strain and became perma uent ridges
The oldest Of them that geologists
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 can see 1t today
wherever 1t Is not covered by newer
rocks or soil just as 1t crystallized and
cooled out of the primeval molten ina
teria
This mass formed a broad V from
Labrador down to Lake Huron and
thence northwestward to Alaska. On
account Of Its shape geOloglsts call 1t
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 wear
ing away of the surface, since 1t first
rolled the ocean Off 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
coast 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 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 Oh
either side of them, and the trough 1t
self, sagging fold, was Il line OF
WedhuC5S Ill luC Cfl'NN AS Tue lOuu VI
deposits became heavier and heavier
the door OF this Crt'tisu slowly yielded
and as It sank toward the heated re
gion below the underst1e melted an(
grew thinner and thinner.
That could not go on forever. ant
soon the continual shrinking Of thu
globe and the enormous pressure o
the weight of the ocean became IRE
sistible. The Canadian shield wai
tmmovable, so the rock In the tr0hgI
began to bulge or crumple all along 10
length. Gradually. not all mt once, bu
by slow aud varying movements, thOs
folds were squeezed up. which in thel
broken and worn down form we know
as the Appalachian mountains.
Toward the south there was roof
for this action to he rather gentle an
regular, but In the far northeast tb
. trough was narrow, and the soft rock
were set on edge, overturned and spin
, tered against the solid continent.
, Very early in the struggle gren
fracture of the earth's crust Occurre
here along a curving northeast an
southwest line. 1t left deep an
broad trench between the crushed an
displaced rocks OF the trough and th
; granite shore OF the Canadian shield
Into this trench rushed all the interiC
y waters of the continent, draining ava
to the sea, and the st. Lawrence rive
was born! There, no doubt, 1t Will r,
= main as long as the earth keeps Il
= present form.
: At that time there was no gulf Of S
:, Lawrence. The land extended out
coast line that stretched unbroke
;, from Nova Scotia to Labrador. I'll
= present gulf is the result of sinkir
- of tho coast region. Most of 1t Is ver
shallow, but chart of sounding
/ shows the ancient river bed as a cha
: mel winding out between Newfoun
. land and Cape Breton to the dee
l. ocean.-Youth's Companion.
!. He Simply Asked.
N First Clubman--Well. how are 20,