Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1858-02-13
Correspondents Of the Journal.
IOWA LEGIsLATURE.
DRsxo1Srs, Feb. 8, IS!


wrote last A joint resolution memorial
izing Congress for an appropriation to build
a Post Office, Marine Hospital and Custom
House in Muscatine, was introduced by Eos
ter into the Senate, and passed that body on
the 4tl inst.
A divorce bill was ordered to its third
reading to-day, in the same House, which
restores, in its main features, thep)d code
law.
The House of Representatives had rich
scene on call of the House to-day. Some
Of the members were away enjoying our first
sleighing, when the officer interrupted their
enjoyment to demand their attendance
They came, but were in an awful bad humor
One member, from Dubuque, of huge pro-
portions, was especially rampant, and de-
nounced everybody in general and Black Re-
pubicans in particular for such an unwar-
rantable interference. Well, 'twas too bad.
However, after an hour spent with closed
doors, the matter was adjusted honorably,
without call for pist lis and coffee for four.
The Committee on Banks in the Senate
have reported State Bank bill and in the
House Free Bank. Both will probably 60
to the sovereigns. A very elaborate system
and prepared with much care by the COM
lnittee, in which Patterson has done efficient
work, is the result of the labors of the Sen
ate committee. What amendments will do
for it | know not. Jefferson once built a
saw mill on high hill. Afterits completion,
the architect told him that the mill was all
right, and he saw but one difficulty a
log could never be hauled mp to the mill.
The banks will de- we'll enough-if they do
anything.
LEoruRE ON GEoLoGY.--Prof. Hall, State
Geologist, gave very interesting lecture to-
night, in the hall of the House, to the Gen.
eral Assembly.
Man belongs to the earth. He is of the
earth, from the earth and fastened to the
earth.
Mineral, especially coal, is the foundation
of modern civilization. The superiority of
moderns is owing to their knowledge of the
earth and its contents, and the method Of
obtaining the use of these contents.
All geological knowledge is at first empyr-
ical. The Indian knew there was lead
around Dubuque and coal in the valley Of the
Des Moines. He did not know that lead
could not be in the valley of the Des Moines
nor coal in the region of Dubuque.
AS we progress, we learn that each forma-
ton of the earth has its own peculiar and
characteristic deposits. Sandstone, clay (and
mixture of these called shale) and limestone
lie one upon the other in regular order as
this pile of books-sometimes tilted to one
side, sometimes to the other, but always in
the same arrangement, and always and eve
rywhere the same archaeological specimens
in the same rocks from the Green to the
Rocky Mountains.
These formations are spread out over this
continent with irregular thickness by the
action of water. The sea covered once ali
the continent. We know this by the sea
shells and coral work everywhere found.
The current ofthe ocean wore away grad
ually the submerged mountains and distrib-
uted widely their crunbled rocks, thinning
out as you recede further from the central
mass. And this thinning out" marks the
currents Of the ocean long ago. The sand
stone of the Catskills, some thousands of
feet thick, dwindles down to hundred feet
in N. E. Iowa. Sand stone and clay are
simple deposits, but limestone the work Of
the coral and sea shells.
Much of modern progress in geology is
due to paleontology (history OF shells in
rock
The lower formation of Iowa is sand,
then clay, then lime, observing the same ar
rangement as everywhere. Below the lime,
however, Qor you do not find everywhere all
the fornations) there are altogether thirty
different formations, characterized by at
least twenty different kinds of fossils. The
salurian mark the first class of species rep
tiles, whether fish or dry land monsters we
know not Then come fishes, and gradual
ly more perfect and more numerous; there
are coal formations, marked with dry land
plants as the ocean gradually is filed up and
dry land appears then vertebrated animals,
then mamnaia. The study of these rocks
and their deposits is the work of geology.
The Professor then gave brief history of
great surveys on this continent and in Eng
land. The English government expends an
nually $500, 900 in these surveys and every
acre is mapped out and described, and these
maps sold at cost. No government there
would dare to deny the popular demand for
these surveys.
In this country, Canada has led eff in the
style and manner of these surveys. New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
South Carolina and New York have finished
up reports of surveys, and some of these
States commenced new and more minute
and complete works. Massachusetts, has
published work by professor on the bird
tracks of the Connecticut Valley, and New
York is making a general archaeological
survey of the State.
In Iowa much has been done chiefly in
the lead and coal region. The different
classes of rock have been surveyed down
the Mississippi Valley, the Pottsdam sand
stone and Niagara limestone marked out,
and the Burlington and Keokuk limestones,
named by right of discovery. More than
half of Iowa occupied by coal bearing away
off to the N. W., perhaps to Minnesota; it
occupies more territory than has generally
been supposed. Iowa has more than her
share of this, the foundation of wealth, the
handmade Of civilization, and with her won-