Putnam patriot., 1914-08-28
BIRTH OF 4 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 a Channel For It's Course From the Great Lakes to the Sea.
 What is the oldest river in the world The St Lawrence It is also one 0i the few rivers that did not have te
 make it's 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. steamiHg and often tremendously disturbed by the throes of a globe be meath it that was shrinking because il was becoming cooler As the globe shrank every particle of the outside WIS naturally pulled n toward the center. and the hardening crust which could not be packed any more solidly than 1t was, had to wrinkle. sinking down here and bulglng Up somewhere else
 After n time certain of these rising wrinkles or folds the thicker or firm CT parts of the earths crust stood the strain and became permanent ridges l The oldest of them that geologists know and apparently the first that 1 bul2eG up above the universal ocean and remained high and dry was the l broad mass on which Canada now rests. II is q part of the original crust l of the earth and We can see t today l wherever it is not covered by newer rocks or soil just as it crystalllzed and cooled ont of the primeyal molten ma l terial
 This mass formed q broad Y from l Labrador down 10 Lake Huron and l thence n3rthwestwar1 to Alaska. On account Of its shape geologists call it the Canadian shield It is the oldest l land known and apparently the strong est. for there are no signs of any ex- tenslve changes in it except the wear ing away of the surface since it first rolled the ocean off its shoulders Off the eastern coast If this primi- tive continent lay chain of lofty is laHds about Oil 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 thut ran from eastern cue bee southHestward to Ohio. Ii WAS two or three hundred miles wide and filed with T shallow sea. and just out side the island chain was the great hollow that held the Atlantic ocean l4a ff-aaif ing and cracAme of the shrinking globe. earthquakes sun and frost. 1 pounding surf. running water. flowing gates. ice all laboged to tear down the mountains and carry the wreckaee of rocks aud dust away into the valleys and sens In this way vast masses of l rock in lavers of shales sandsteneS. and what not. were laid down in that narrow. troughlise sea between the chain of stands and the continent
 All these .sedimentary" rocks were soft and weak as compared with the solid old granites deeply rooted OH either side of them. and the trough it self su.2lng fold was line of | weakness iH the crust As the load of deposits became heavier and heavier the floor of this trough slowly yielded. and as it sank toward the heated rez zion heiaw the underside melted and grew thinner and thinner.
 That could hot so on forever, and 1 soon the continual shrinking of the globe and the enormous pressure of the weight If the ocean became ire sistibe The Canadian shield was | immovuble, su the rock in the trough began to bulge or crumple all along it's length. Gradually, not all at once, bat by slow and varying movements. those folds were 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 ;ered against tfe olid continent
 Very early iu the struggle great fracture of the eurths crust occurred here along a curving northeast and southwest line lt left 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 rivet was born There nc doubt. it will re- main Us long as the earth keeps is present form
 At that tune there was no gulf of St Lawrence The land extended out tt coast line that stretched unhroken from Nova Scotia to Labrador The present gulf is the result of sinking of the coast region Most of if is very shallow, but chart of soundings shows the ancient river he'd as a chan nel winding out between Newfound land and cape Breton to the deer ] As+.,on NnufhsS Camnnni0u