Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1855-04-07
..-.a From the Cincinnati Columbisu, March 23
SINGULAR GEOLOGICAL DssCOvERIEs--
AGAssLz AND LYELL NOnPLUssED.

l
"A gentleman, who recently arrived in this
city from Vcnango county. Pennsylvanie, has
I in his possession and has had on exhibition
| for several days past, some very curious pet
rifed human bodies, which were found by him
in the bed Of an stream, which is one OF the
| Allegheny river. ftsua agas sgs-.
These remains are supposed TO be those
| of q man and woman, who, by the wonderful
petrifctiye powers Of nature. have been
turned to solid stone; which, on being struck,
gives out a. clear ring, and is very hard. AS
petrifactions. these stones are objects Of great
| interest but as much of the appearance Of
| humanity has been lost by the attrition from
| the running water of the stream, in which
they had probably lain for ages, they might,
after attracting brief attention, have been
classea with other ordinary petriiaetions and
| been forgotten, had not their close exomina-
tion by one of our sauans led TO the discovery
that they are irrefagible proofs of the exis-
tence Of man upon the revolving globe long
lie ore the rericds when corals, crinoidca and
| trlbolltes first made their appearance.
Heretofore no fossils have been found in
primitive rocks, and hence geologists have
inferred that forvast periods in the worlds
history nothing but plants and the lower
| types ofanimal life were In existence, and
that for ages tho earth was inhabited by
sauriane and ether creatures now found only
as fossils.
The petriactions to which we refer above,
and which overturns this theory, may have
been carried considerable distance by the
stream but We Go not know the locality in
which they we're originally placed. They
show, by their constituent character that
they belonged to the very earliest period OF
the worlds history. The remains supposed
I & fhNcp pf
tho sandstone strata, and have nothing pecu-
liar about them, except their indsfniteness
and wanting the feet.
The petrilaction supposed to be that Of
man IS the greatest curiosity. lts 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 ovorturn the spec
ulative hypothesis of Agassiz, Lyell. Dana.
and the whole hosts ofmcdern geologists. Ii
is well known that quartz and gnciss are
primitive rocks which underlie the sandstone
rocks. |: is assumed that when FIRST found.
the feet were ON this male petrifaction. but
al they seemed slaty and of q coal.like tex
ture, they were bnrned by the women, who
prefer utility TO scientific discovery.
If this was so, then probably the body
was originally so buried that the feet ey-
tended upward into the carboniinrons strata,
and were petriied into coal. As the feet
are now gone. il is perhaps improper to
speculate upon their character, but luckily
science has this wonderful body and head.
The body being q sandstone, proves that
the petrfaction Dusr have been done in
the sandstone strata, and the head being
Of gneiss and quartz, proves that it must
have been petriied into gneiss and quartz
in the gness formation. We may be asked
how this could happen, and the answer is
obvious.
II is certain that man, when alive, mast
have inhabited the sandstone for period.
and If, as we think i5 evident, he was bu-
ried head downwardS, aud at Just such a
depth that his head came in the gneiss.
aud his body in the sandstone formation,
then it is easy to conclude that his body
petriied into sandstone, and his head into
quartz and Pneiss. Upon no other hypo-
thesis can be quartz and gncss head OF
this petriaction be accounted for. 1t is
hardly likely that the man was buried in
sandstone strata, where all but the head
petrifed, and that then, by some conyulsion
Of nature, he was jammed into the lower
primitive rocks, where he lay for ages, until,
by some other convulsion Of nature he was
thrown out into the stream. where found.
Whichever of these theories is adopted
the old theory about man not being found
in the primitive rocks is completely over
turned, and geologists will have TO acknowl-
edge that there "are more things in heaven
and earth than are dreamed of in their
philosophy" ,f