Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1845-05-27
VOL. V.-No. As.
GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY.

GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY.
Last week we gave condensed account
oil the proceedings in several of the earlier
silings of the scientific convention then in
session at New Haven, Connecticut. In
the subsequent slttings Of the same learned
body many interesting facts and statements
were made, the most curious of which we
give sketch Of. for the profit and amuse-
ment of our readers They are condensed
from the report in the N. Y Tribune.
Prof. Hitchcock, in the course Of some
remarks on the Geology of Western Asia,
stated that he had received from Noun,
Olympus 100 specimens some Of which
were extremity curious, and 800 specimens
from series of aocks between Terbizond
and Ooromania; and also that he had pro-
cured bottle Of water, this spring. from the
Caspian Sea, through the kindness of the
British Consul at Teheron-which must
have come al lest 1900 miles on horseback.
He found it 10 coma n carbonic acid in con-
s dera5le quantity with quite large portion
of Sulphure,ted hydrogen. He gave also
curious account OF Salt Pond IN Persia,
the water of which is FIVE feet deep and the
salt at the bottom of which is five feet thick.
small sand bar separates the water of the
pond from that of large salt lake, and in
some high winds the water of the lake is
driven over this bar into the pond and there
evaro'ated and salt made by the hand of ma
ture alone. Prof. II. gave also an account
of a curious cave near Ooromania, from
which stream constantly flows of carbonic
acid gas, similar to the cele brated grotto del
Cano near Naples. Prof Booth said he
cad formerly Analysed the Croton and Schuyl-
kill waters, and found the former of the two
much the puresi, but the purest water he
had ever Analysed was that Of the creek at
Washington city.
| DR.. ID. says these facts convince him
that while the earth WIS being fitted to pass
into its present state, after he era in which
it was occupied entirely by Marine animals,
then came the orniihord (bird) era, then
reptile era, then the era of tue interesting
animal series connected with the coal beds,
then that of the enormous s4urian reptiles
found below and up to the chalk formation,
after which Canes the period of terrestrial
animals and the era of the present forests
and Of man. Prof S liman exhibited fac
smile plates by DR.. Owen, of the fossil birds
found at New Zealand; the thigh bone
reaching from mans knee to his shoulder
Prof Slliman also expressed the opinion
that when we had quarred little deeper
and turned over some of our old rocks, we
should find fossil bones Of some of the ami
mails by which the foot tracks wero made
DR.. Barrett read a paper on tlp congela-
f;cp of tho rod SapdStona ~t,ti,Hy tb,t he
had seen evidences exhibited in il Of solar
heat,-by the cracks showing the baking
process,-and that they afford an in,eres.
ting evidence ofthe temperature of the earth
ar the time those birds lived and walked and
those tracks were made that are above re.
ferred TO.
Ii was, he said, a fine old meteorological
record of the weather of those days (beins
so much more ancient and interesting than
the records of ancient Egyp) sereotyped
on the spo and sealed up to be opened and
exhibited to us thousand of ages afterwards
as true record of part of the earth's his
tory. DIR, b. said he could show in the
cracks of the red sand stone evidences oil
the solar heat that produced them, that he
could also show rain drops of the old (anti-
de!uvlan) world in this sand stone---ripple'
marks of waves-marks of The strong waves
and the weak waves--showing that in that
terribly ancient world fluids were subject to
the SINE laws that they now are.
He was satisfied, he said, that by the
features he Ind there explained he could
read ly determine the temperature of the
earth at that 'oden time within about 20
degrees. A committee was appointed TO
to make examinations and. investigate the
subject.-Bufalo Courier.