The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1855-04-11
From the Cincinnati Columbian, March 90
Singular Geological Discoveries
Agassiz and Lyell Nonplussed.


Agassiz and Lyell Nonplussed.
a gentleman who recently arrived
in this city from Venongo county
Pennsylvania. has in his possession. and
has had on exhibition for several days,
past, some very curious petrified human
bod es. which were found by him in the
bed of n stream, which is one of the
principal branches of the Allegheny riv-
er.
These remains are supposed to be those
OF man and a woman, who. by the won.
derful petrifactive powers ofnaturc, have
been turned TO solid stone which. on te-
ing struck. gives out clear ring. and is
very hard. AS pctrfactions.t these stones
are objects. of great interest; but as
much of the appearance Of humanity has
been lost by the attriiion from the run.
ming water Of the stream, in which they
had probably lain for ages they might,
after attracting brief attention, have
been classed with other ordinary petrl-
factions and been forgotten, had not
their close examination by one of our
sarans led to the discovery that they
are irrefragablc proofs of the existence
of man upon this revolving globe long be-
fore the periods when coras, crinoidia
and frilobitcs first made their appear.
ance.
Heretofore no fossils have been found
in primitive rocks, and hence geologists
have inferred that for vast periods in the
worlds history nothing but plants and
tho louar tvn nf IA ,,,o
istence, and that for ages the earth was
inhabited by saurians and other creatures
row found only as fossils.
The petrfactions to which we refer a.
bove, and which overturn this theory.
may have been carried considerable
distance by the stream but We do not
need to know the locality in which they
were oringipally placed They show by
their constituent character that they bo.
long to the very earliest period of the
worlds history. The remains supposed
to be those of female are evidently
from the sandstone strata, and have
nothing peculiar about them. except their
indefniteness and wanting the feet.
The petrfaction supposed to be that
of man is the great curiosity It's feet
are now wanting. its body and legs are
composed of sandstone, and its head of
quartz and gneiss. From this single fact
science has evolved conclusions which
overturn the speculative hypotheses of
Agassiz, Lyell, Dana, and the whole host
of modern geologists 1t is we'll known
that quartz and gneiss are primitive
rocks which underlie the sandstone rocks.
II is assumed that when first found, the
feet were on this male petrifactiou but
as they seemed slaty and of coal like
texture they were burned by the women.
who prefer utility to scientific discovery.
If this was so, then probably the body
was originally so buried that the feet ex-
tended upward into the carbopiferous
strata aud were pctrified into coal As
the feet arc now gone it is perhaps i'm
proper 10 speculate upon their character,
but luckily science has this wonderful
body and head. The body boiug a sand.
stone proves that the petrifaction must
have been done in tho sandstone strata,
and the head being Of gness and quartz
proves that il must have been petrifed
into eneiss aud quartz in the gneiss
formation. We may be asked how this
could happen and the answer is obvious
1t is certain the man. when alive must
have Inhabited the sandstone for pc.
riod, and II, as we think is evident, be
was buried head downwsrds, apd at juss