The Story. of Our Continent.

The Story of Our Continent; a Reader in the Geography and Geology of North America for the Use of Schools, is the title o one of Professor Shaler's two new books. It is by no means an uninstructive book for any student, although meant especially for schools It is in the line of advance in study of geography, a wakening an interest in the structure of land and the causes of its various forms which could never be felt in the mere names, boundaries and inhabitants of countries. Such study of itself carries interest into these drier facts, fixing names in the memory as denoting the regions of the various peculiarities of land-formation. In late years the knowledge of the more irregular parts of our continent has much advanced and consequently that of the whole structure, since the mountain regions give the main clues to the great geological movements. They represent the tracts of country which have been formed the longest, parts of them having always remained above water. The sediment washed by the sea from these protruding tracts has formed lime-stone and sand stone about their edges and the strata of these rocks is therefore much thicker here than in regions like the Mississippi basin which have been often submerged. One of the great theories of mountain formation takes these sedimentary rocks and their overloading of the earth's crust for the cause of the uplifting. The study of such movements and their influence on neighboring formations well explains the existence not only of many of the mountains and valleys but also basins and river-systems.

["The Story of Our Continent," By N. S. Shaler. Boston: Ginn & Co., 1891.]