Excerpt from Historical Sketch of Cass County, Illinois: An Oration Delivered July 4, 1876, at Beardstown, Ills At that period the surface of Illinois was much lower, geologi cally considered, than it is at the present time. Since its creation, the thin crust of the earth has been undergoing slow mutations, breathing, as'it were, by centuries elevating and depressing in the lapse of ages under the influence of its mighty lungs of fire sinking slowly and imperceptibly beneath their former level continents and islands, and as gradually raising others above the waste of waters. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.