Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1862-10-31
The GooloGy of saadpnIry Counsy.
Written ~ ahe fftinoat 1o6hise, by D. tIUnSIEa
nlinois STATE Ueoioaist

more nearly concerning their own locality. =
Your eoidrnhswill AFFORD me a medium through
which i may communicate a few such facts.
Ohio has doAe almost nothips n the way Of
Gcoiogieal surveys Her structure and mineral
resources sre,perlaps less uudcyteod tbm those
Of any Of her sister States. Unable to get any
thing from the reports, and having been oyel bot
portion Of the State, myself, de not pretend to
great accuracy. 8aaisq sfo1 fn bi.fs lisI
From the highest ridge Of the Alleghanies
passing westward, the trnvsler finds a series. Of
ridges aud bellows trending, generally, north
ward and southwsrd. Rrofessor Rogers Of the
Pennsylvahia surveys, after careful study Of
these ridges. has found in them key to the
structure Of much Of North America They
were caused by tremendous carthquakew waves,
lifting up the bed Of the sea, and, folding the
stratain ridges and valleys--tbe ridges becom-
ing more and more open toward the west Now
the last Of these ridges trends from Cincinnati to
the northwest Along This ridge the oldest
straiifed rocks are brougbtto the surface and
the dips are, consequently, to the northeast
Here we have key to much Of Ohio Geology.
Starting from the western boundary Of the
State and going eastward we are passing sue.
cessiyely over newer out-crops We are coming
up IN the crust Of the earth. The blue lime
stone dips below the gray, and this dips below
group Of limestone, states and sandstone-
This system in turn lies below the coal Going
eastward from Fremont, We would pass over
limestone out-crops TO Bellevue, thence to near
Norwalk over states, and thence to near Wooster
over sandstone. This lime and slate and sand
stone, make up what Biologists call the Dcvon-
ian system. Il is that system which Hugh Mil
er describes with such wonderful fascination un-
der the name of "Old Rcd Sandstone" 1t un-
derliesthe coal. 1t was formed on the floor Of a
shallow and turbulent ocean. This We infer
both from the fossils and the ripple marks
The sea leaves his ripple marks only on shallow
bottoms
The limestones of this system are full Of the
remains of animals that peopled bygone ocean.
Peculiar forms of fish, of shell-fsh and Of corals
abound in them; these fossils will tell us the
place Of the rock in the crust of the earth, and
its relations 70 important mineral deposits.
Walk out along the Sandusky and you will
find multitudes of loose rocks Most Of these
are granite. They were brought down from
their home in the far north. They will not con
cern us now. You come TO limestone block
Strike it with the hammer Therel you have
exposed in that fragment hundreds of sea shells
and corals and little bony rings. Take it up
reverently, for it is part of the sepulcher of a
primeval sea. Those were among the earliest Of
Gods creatures. You win easily distinguish
one which will tell us our relationa to coal and
lead deposits. Look at that little bivalve sea
shell. The valve seems almost fat. Little
threads run from the beak down TO the margin;
other lines run transeEersrly around the shell;
these mark periodic growths. We will can this
shell the Lcptena. 1t characterizes the Devoni-
an rocks and tells you that these limestones url-
deT9ie the coal and ouerlie the lead depostes.-
But what Of carbon oilf 1ftbere is no coal or
lead here, may there not be carbon oil? 'Unfor-
tunately this shell win NOT tell u.s. The carbon
oil wells, are so recent, or rather. attention to
them is so recent that science cannot yet deter
mine with precision where it viii be found
This carbon oil has been known from the earli-
est times. The builders of the Tower Of Babel
used it as a cement It floats over the Dead Sea
with the name of mineral pitch. A vast and
apparently inexhaustable lake of it underles the
peninsula of Okesra in the Caspian Sea At
the southern end of the peninsula il bols up
from the earth and burns and has been burning
in flames near twenty feet high from time i'm
memorial In some form then, men have known
this carbon oil from the earliest times. But SCI
e'ce is just beginning to know IL. A few years
ago Biologists would have said that oil could be
found only ON the margin Of coal 6dsi,,s. The
assumption was, that il is oily matter which es-
capped from the coal and collected in the issures
of the rock. From this assumption it very ap-
proPriately took the name Of coal oil. But it is
found in Canada and New York, in rocks of the
same age as the linestOues Of Fremont. 1t
could not thus have originated from the coal It
could not have had vegetable basis The pre-
sumption is that it had an animal basis--thaf il
is coral oil rather than coal OIL The coral buiid-
er is known to seerete oil. If this is the source.
of the carbon oil, then science hath revealed
fact which has all the glow of romance. How
wonderful, that myriads Of little God taught
masons should toll on the floor Of primeval sea,
with no purpose of their own, no eyes, no light,
but toiling on in darkness, storing away in their
cells the oil which at the bidding Of man turns
night into day!
have seen slabs from Sandusky which had a
large per cent OF this coral oil. 1t may be here,
it may not. l have no data for an opinion.
If the bed Of the Atlantic were laid dry, with
what interest would We search among its vaults
of DEATH Here, we would say lived aud perish
ed colony OF oysters Herr, was a city of poll
yPes. Here,the beautiful cones and cerories bored
their victims to death. Over this, the fairy nau-
titus spread his transparent and many tinted
sails. But we need not go to the Atlantic
We live on dried,up sea-bottomS Whatever
lifts the mind out of the Present and throws it
intothe future far back into the past, eleyates
ennObles. Come with me to this limestone
ridge near Fostoria- We must not now live in
the present Backward the ages are unfolding
and we gaze upon the sepulchers Of the worlds s
remotest yesterday What world was ours
when this limestone was a -bottOmI A vast
and shOrelsss ocean eRgulphed thew world Here
and there granite island lifted its head above
the dark and oaming waters. But,
| The ocean calm. and still below,
And life rare aud radiant forms
Was sporting amid those bowers Of stone;
AAd wAS SAFE while tho wrashfal spirit Of storm
Had made the tops ef the wave hts own.v
Here we turn up a fossil bivalvs sea she'll OF
very pscnliar structure, The animal waadivid-