The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-07-28
An ExtIserdinary Fact.

An ExtIsordtnary Fact.
Mr.. Joseph Potts, an intelligent miner, at
work, on Monday, in his room in the Bodi
am mines, 500 feet below the surface of the
earth, had thrown down, by blast large
mass Of coal, and was engaged in breaking
it up TO fill into his car, when from the body
Of 4, through one of the fractures, leaped
out q living frog, beautifully formed and
active, about the seize Of ones two fingers.
This extraordinary curiosity, we have now
before US, pert and active as youth of his
species six months old {; yet, as We hold him
in our hands, we bend in reverence and al
most in awe before this venerable patriarch;
this almost first animal existence of creative
power. What unnumbered cycles of time
have rolled away since he first had form
and being. The mountains and the hills,
ard the deep strata of rocks that form their
ribs have grown by the slow process of ma
ture, over his prison house, since he was
incarcerated. The valley of the Mississippi
has emerged from the ocean since his limbs
were formed and had their proportions; and
il, as biologists calculate, it has requir-
ed six millions Of years to form the delta of
the Mississippi below the bluffs of Natchez,
what must be the age of this petit animal,
now in our feeble grasp. Can it be possible
that his existence extends back through the
eternity of twelve millions of years; and yet
If there be truth in the speculations of Agas-
siz, he is older than that. What creature
of an instantwas Methuselah compared with
this frail creature; what an ephemera is the
Oldest patriarch of the forests, whose limbs
have been shaken by the storms ola thouS-
and years, when its age is counted with that
Of this little prisoner, who came into the
world when perhaps the sun was young
and the stars had Just come forth in the
heavens, and the planets beyond our sphere
were in chaos, or their substances were
gathering into nebulous clouds. Do we
hold in our hands the oldest animal in ex-
istence on the face of the earth 1t must be
SO. There may be others still imprisoned,
as venerable but none can claim a remoter
origin. How came he in his deep buried
cell According to all received theories,
the formation ofcoal was prior to all animal
life. He must have been born when the
substances of coal were in fluid state, and
he sunk into it before it became a solid, and
his tomb was Theoretically sealed by the
processes of its formation. Had he a pro-
genitor or is he en- original creation? He
is beautifully shaped, and differs from the
species of our day only in longer claws to
his feet, which are without webs, leaving
ss to infer that he was not intended for o
good swimmer.
What an immortality has the vital prin-
c;ple that has lain dormant from the first
ages of the world in the body of this little
animal If life can last for millions Of years
in this frail body, can one doubt the living
principle Of the soul, and its immortality
Here are, in the history of a mean reptile
themes for many sermon; and we advis,
all to visit it and contemplate it, anC
draw the inspiration which so humble
subject affords, and which brings us so i'm
mediately into the presence of creativ
power.
Over the vein of coal in which this littl
animal lay imbedded, are two other strait
of coal, separated by solid sand stone @
100 feet in thickness from the bottom one
and by so feet of like rock between eacl
other. Between the seam, from which tn
frog came, and the surface, there are tw
hundred feet of solid sand stone and coal
and about 40 feet of coal, slate and com
nom clay. These arc all regular stratifca
tons, that must have required ages beyon
the power of human comprehension to com
pute, TO have formed them Below ther
all, comes forth living, breathing, sensitiv
animal, clothed in flesh, with all the organ
of bis species perfect, that had its existence
before the slow processes of their formatio
began.