Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1847-11-17

IIdIt WlucTneSSeS Wnfcn are mere accumu-
lated and compressed, we recognize no plant
ofany existing species. Here. too, we have
passed below the last trace of reptile life.
The speaking footprints impressed on the
preceding rocks, are absent here. Nor is
there single convincing indication that
these prlmeval forests ever echoed to the
voice Of birds. But between these strata.
beds oflimestone of enormous thickness are
lnterposed; each procaiming the prolonged
existence and final extinction of a creation.
For these limestone beds are not so much
the charnel-houses Of fossil animals, as the
remains of the animals themselves.
The mountain masses of stone which now
surround us, extending for miles in length
and breadth, were once sentient existences-
tcstaceous and COMMUNICATING at the bot
tom OF the ancient seas and lakes. How
countless the ages necessary for their accu-
mutation; when the formation of only few
inches OF the strata required the life and
death OF many generations Here, the mind
is not merely carried back thro' immeasur-
able periods, but, while standing amid the
petrtied remains of this succession of pri-
meval forests, and extinct races of animals
piled up into sepulchrai mountains. we seem
to be encompassed by the thickest shadow
of the valley of death.
On quitting these stupendous monuments
OF death, we leave behind US the last YES
tIge OF land plants, and pass down to the old
sand stone. The geological character of
this vast formation, again tells of ages in
Vulnerable. For though many thousand
feet IN depth, it is obviously derived from
the materials of more ancient rocks. frac-
turcd, decomposed, and deposited in water.
The gradual and quiet nature of the process
and therefore lis immense duration, are ey-
ldent from the numerous 'platforms of
death which mark its formation, each
crowded with organic structures which
lived and died where they are now seen:
and which consequently must have perish
ed by some destructive agency, too sudden
to allow of their dispersion, and vet so sub
tie and quiet as to leave the place of their
habltation undisturbed.
UNNECESSARILY far behind us as we have
already left the fair face of the extant crea-
ton, while travelling into the night of an
.clcnt time, we vet feel, as we stand on the
threshold of the next, or Silurian system,
and look down towards 1.-The foundations
OF the EARTH that we are not half way on
our course. Here, on surveying the fossil
structures, we are at first struck with the
total change in the petrified nhabitlnts of
the sea as compared with what we found in
the mountain limestone, implying the lapse
of long periods of time during the forma-
ton Of the intervening old red sandstone
which we have Just left. But still more
are we impressed with the lapse of duration
while descending the long succession of
strata, of which this primary fossiferous
formation is composed, when we think of
their slow derivation from the more ancien,
rocks; of their oft-repeated elevation and
depression; of the long periods of reposc,
during which hundreds Of animal species
ran through their cycle of generations, and
became extinct; and Of the continuance of
this sratllyng process, until these thin beds
had acquired, by union, the immense thick
ness of a mile and Il half Next below this
we reach the Cambrian system, of almost
equal thickness, and formed BY the same
slow process. Here the gradual decrease
of animal remains admonshes us. that even
the vast and dreary empire of death has its
limits, and that weare in its outskirts. But
there IS a solitude greater than that Of the
boundiess descent, and dreariness more
Impressive than that which rcinns in a
world cntombed. On leaving the slate rocks
OF the Cambrian, and descending to those
of the next formation, we find that the
worlds of organic remains are past, and that
we have reached region older than death,
because Older than life itself Here, at
least, if life ever existed. all trace Oft is OBJ
liberated by the iusing power OF the heat
below. But we have not even vet reached
a resting place. Passing down through
the beds of micha-schist, many thousand
feet in depth, to the great gneiss formation,
we find that we have reached the limits Of
qualification itself The granite masses
below, Of a depth which man can never ex-
plore. are not only chrystalized themselves
but the igne0us power acting through them
has partially chrystalized the rocks above
Not only life but the conditions Of life, are
here at an end.
Now, is it possible for us to look from
our ideal position, backwards and upwards
TO the ten miles height-supposingt the stra-
ia TO be piled regularly-lrom which we
have descended, without feeling that we
have reached a point of unreasonable re-
motcncss in terrestrial antiquity! Can we
think of the thin soil of mans few thous-
and wears in contrast with the succession of
worlds we have passed through; Of the slow
formation of each of these worlds on worlds,
by the disintegration of more ancient ma
terials and their subsistence in water; of the
leai-ike thinncss of great proportion of
the strata: of the consequent flow of time
necessary to form only few perpendicular
inches of all these miles; or of the long pc
riods of alternate elevation and depression.
action and repose, which mark their for
nation. without acknowledging that the
DAYS and years Of gcology are ages and eve
les of ages! Let Us conceive, if we can,
that the atoms OF one OF those strata have
formed the sands of an hour-elass, and that
each grain counted moment, and we NAV
then make some approximation to the past
periods ofgeology; periods, in the compu-
taton Of which. the longest human dynasty
and even the date of the pyramids. would
form only an insignificant fraction. Or,