The Carolina Spartan. [volume] (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, 1857-08-20

constitution and present population, it is
Government and n country composed of all
peoples aud races, aud not confined exclu.
sivey to the Anglo Saxon.
Hugh Miller on the Coal Measures.
The following is magnificent descrip.
ton, by Hugh Miller, of the formation of
coal measures. Reader and writer are sup.
posed to be on the waves and among the
forests Of tho actually submerging world:
1--WE have entered tho coal measures.
For seven formations together, our course,
from the lower Silurian to the upper old
Sandstone, has lain over like oceans with
out visible shore, though, iii Columbus
in his voyage Of discovery, have now
and then found little floating weed, to in-
dicate the approaching coast The water is
fast Swallowing. Yonder passes broken
branch with the leaves still unwithered: and
there floats tuft OF fern. Land, from the
mast head! Land! land! land! A low shore
thickly covered with vegetation.
"luge trees Of wonderful form stand out
far in tho water. There seems no inter.
vening beach. A thick hedge Of reeds, tall
as the masts Of pinnaces, run along the
deeper bays, like water flags at the edge Of
lake. a river of vast volume comes roll.
ing from the interior, darkening the water
for leagues with its slime and mud, and
bearing with it, to the open sea, reeds and
fern, and cones Of the piue, and immense
floats Of leaves, and hero aud there some
bulky tree, undermined and uprooted by
the current We near the coast, and now
enter the openings Of the stream. A scarce
penetrabIe phaanx Of reeds, that attain 10
the height and well nigh to the bulk of
forest trees, is ranged on either hand. The
bright and glossy stems seem, rodded like
Gothic columns; tho pointed leaves stand
out green at every joint, tier above tier,
each tier resembling a coroual wreath, or
an ancient crown, with the rays turned out
wards; and we see atop what may be either
large spikes or catkins.
"What strange forms Of vegetable life ap-
pear in the forest behind! Can that be
club moss that raises its slender height for
more than fifty feet from tho soll or can
these tall palm.like trees be actually ferns,
and these spreading branches nero frondsl
And then the gigantic reeds! are they not
mere varieties Of the common horse tail Of
our bogs and morasses magnified some six
ty Or hundred times? Have we arrived
at some such country as the continent visit.
ed by CULVER, in which he found thick
cts OF weeds tall as woods of twenty years
growth and lost himself amid forest Of
corn fly feet in h,:ghl The lesser vege.
tation OF our own country, its reeds, morass-
es and ferns, seem here as il viewed through
microscope; the dwarfs have grown up in
10 giants, and yet there appears to be no
proportional increase in size among what
are unequivocaIIy its trees. Yonder is a
group OF what seem 10 be pines, tall and
bulky, IT is true, but neither taller nor
bulkier than the pines OF Norway and
America; and the club moss behind shoots
up lis green hairy arms, loaded with what
seem catkns, above their topmost cones.
But what monster Of the vegetable world
comes floating down the stream, now cir.
cling round in the eddies, now dancing on
the ripple, now shooting on the rapid! 1t
resembles gigantic star-fsh, or an i'm
mense coach-wheel Invested Of the rim
There is green, dome-like mass in the cen.
tre, that corresponds 10 tho nave of the
wheel or the body OF the slar.fsh, and the
boughS shoot out horizontally on every
side, like spokos from tho nave, or rays
from the central body. The diameter con-
siderably exceeds forty feet, and the branch
es, originally of deep green, are assuming
the golden lingo OF decay: the cylindrical
and hollow leaves stand out thick on every
side like the prickles of tie wild rose on
the red, i?eshy, lance-like shoots Of Il wears
growth, that will be covered two seasons
hence with flowers and fruit. That strange.
ly formed organism presents no existing
type among all the numerous families OF
tho vegetable kingdom. There is an amaz.
ing luXuriance OF growth all around us.
Scarce can the currents make way through
the thickels Of aquatic plants that rise thick
lrom tho muddy bottom; and though the
sunshine falls bright upon the upper boughs
of the tangled forest beyond, not ray
penetrates the more than twilight gloom
that b'oods over the marshy platform be-
low. Tho rank steam OF decaviug vegeta.
ton forms = thick blue blaze, that partially
obscures the underwood; deadly lakes of
carbonic acid gas have accumulated in Che
holIows; there is silence NIL around, uniuter.
rapIel save 10y q sudden splash Of some
reptile fish that has risen 10 the surface IN
pursuit Of its prey, or when sudden breeze
sliri the hot air and shakes the fronds of
the giant forns or the catkns of the reeds
The wide continent before US is a continent
devoid Of animal life, save that its pools aud
rivers abound in fish and mollusca, and that
millions and tens of millions OF the infusory
tribes swarm in the bogs and marshes.
Here and there, too, an insect Of a strange
form ilutters among the leaves. Ii is more
than probable that no creature, furnished
with lungs of tho more perfect construction,
could have breathed the atmosphere of this
carly period and have lived"
y little grI, on bearing her mother say
that she intended 10 90 10 ball, aud have
her dress trimmed with buges. innocently
InInItnI IN tlt. luf, II