Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1914-08-13
Shepherdown Jefferson County, Virginia, THURSDAY, August 49, 1914
The Oldest River in The World.

The Oldest River in The World.
What is the oldest river in the world ?
The St. Lawrence. ii is also one CT the
few rivers that did not have 10 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 a mass OF water, hot,
steaning, and often tremendously dis
turbed by the throes OF a globe beneath
if that was shrinking because it was be-
coming cooler. AS the globe shrunk,
every particle OF the outside was naturally
pulled in toward the centre, and the hard
ening crust, which could not be packed
any more solldly than it was, had TO
wrinkle. sinking down here, and bulging
up somewhere else. After time, GER
tain OF these rising wrinkles, or folds, the
thicker, or firmer, parts OF the earth's
crust, stood the strain, and became per-
manent 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 part of the original crust OF the
earth, and we can see it today, wherever
it is moi covered by newer rocks or soil,
just as it crystalized and cooled out Of
the primeval molten material.
This mass formed broad Y from Lab
rador down TO Lake Huron, and thence
northyestward to Alaska; on account OF
its shape, geologists call it the Canadian
Shield. II is the oldest land known, and
apparently the strongest, for there are no
signs OF any extensive changes in il lex
cept the wearing away OF the surface
since il first rolled the ocean off IFS
shoulders.
Off the eastern coast OF this primitive
continent lay a chain OF lofty islands,
about on the line Of the Blue Ridge, the
White Mountains, the Maine coast, and
Nova Scotia. Between these islands and
the mainland was trough-like space that
ran from eastern Quebec southweStward
TO Ohio. 1t was two or three hundred
miles wide, and filled with shallow sea;
and just outside the island chain was the
great hollow that held the Atlantic Ocean.
Time went on. For ages the straining
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, trough-like sea
between the chain of islands and the con-
tinent. 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 itself,
saggng fold, was line Of weakness in
the crust. AS the load Of deposits be-
came heavier and heavier, the floor Of
this trough slowly yielded, and as it sank
toward the heated region below, the un-
der side melted, and grew thinner and
thinner.
That could not 60 on forever, and soon
the continual shrinking Of the globe and
the enormous pressure OF the weight Of
the ocean became irresistible. The Can
adian Shield was immovable, so the rock
in the trough began TO bulge or crumple
all along IFS length. Gradually, not all at
once, but by slow and varying move
ments, those folds were squeezed up,
which in their broken and Worn-down
form weknow as the Appalachian Noun
| tainS.
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 splntered against
the solid continent Very early in the
struggle great fracture of the earth'S
crust occurred here along a curving
northeast and southwest line. 1t left
deep and broad trench between the crush
ed 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
born There, no doubt, it will remain
as long as the earth keeps IFS present
| form.
At that time there was no Gulf OF ST.
Lawrence. The land extended out to
coast line that stretched unbroken from
Nova Scotia TO Labrador. The present
gulf is the result OF sinking OF the coast
region. Most Of ii is very shallow, but a
chart of soundings shows the ancient
river bed as a channel winding out be-
tween Newfoundland and Cape Breton
to the deep ocean.