The mountain Democrat., 1863-05-09
The Wonders Of the Globe.

From the creation of the world down
to the present day, q series Of organic
changes has been constantly developed,
which have not only altered in material
degree the outlines Of continents and the
landmarks of the mariner, but have
changed greatly its constituent particles.
For instance: the miners have delved in
the bowels of the earth and withdrawn
from thence thousands Of tons Of coal,
which, in their turn, have been consumed
and wasted by FIRE; their elements being
so wholly transmOgrited that nothing re-
mains Of all their bulk but heap OF dust.
Through all these processes . gradual but
constant dimunition has gone on; the
gases eliminated by the combustion OF
the feel have been first set free. then ig-
nited and finally resolved, as to their COM
ponents, into the atmosphere. So also
with the metals-precious and base they
too, have parted with their individuality
as earths, and have lost in bulk during
the refinement to which they have been
subjected. The rough and ragged edges
Of the ores have been smoothed into close
and tenacious surfaces. The loose and
striated masses have been knit closely, as
to their 6bers, until they are one and ho-
mogeneous throughout. Here, again,
have the atoms comprising = whole
parted, each one, with some portion Of
their identity whilst being transfused into
one mass.
Not only do these changes occur in the
metals and the minerals of the globe, but
they also take place in the vegetable king
dom. The flowers of the field, the grass.
the herbage; these wither and shrink be-
fore the ferveDt beat Of the sun, and lose
in weight and bulk. Nay! even the
monarchs of the wood, unto whose roots
the settler lays his civilizing AZ, these
come crashing down through their fel-
lows and make the earth resound with
the force of the impact. They also obey
the dictates or the impulses Of nature
they become green with mold, they rot
to their cores, through all their sturdy
branches the sap oozes out until they are
utterly dead. Weigh the dead tree and
the living -one, and tell US which is the
more pOnderAble. Far to the North,
among those huge icebergs, the fOrma-
ton Of which no human eyes ever be.
held, the cliffs that crop out in the polar
regions waste slowly and silently away.
DR.. Kane has told us that their bases may
be found, when not covered with snow,
an impalPable dust; this is the debris Of
the rocks, cliffs, or whatever the nature
of the structure may be. The silence Of
those regions is, at times, intense if such
an expression may be allowed. Except
when. the storms rage in their fury
when the grinding of those phantom tow
ers against the loose pancake ice ceases,
when the floating foes circle idly in some
eddy-then proceeds during the short
northern summer the waste Of the world.
The tumuli of ice resolve to water the
monuments reared by the hand of the
Frost King topple and fall, and, loosened
by the genial warmth, streams trickle
slowly down the rocks, carrying in their
course the grAnuIated particles liberated
by the cold. In the dead Of night, in the
awful silence Of those extreme latitudes,
great masses Of ice, or earth, or rock,
loosen themselves and fall with mighty
crash into the sea beneath.
Thus, through all the zones that bell
the globe-torrid, temperate and frigid-
a continual waste, an incessant abStrac'
ton Of the vital functions of nature tran
spires these operations are both artifi
cial and inevitable. How far do these
organic aud elementary changes affect the
integrity of the sphere3 Gases, as We
we'll know, enter into the composition o.
our food, our bodies, and the very air snd
water that we breathe and drink. Sc
also the cloud, silver-lined, that stretches
its dark shadow over the summer or the
wiRteF heaven, surcharged with cooling
showers or else with moisture which is
changed in the atmosphere into stAr.likG
crystals of snow, these also hold in sus
pension some portion of the etheria
forces of the globe and descend to reviv
ify and fertalize its various functions
The ashes Of the coal part with theil
chemical Ingredients, and make the gras!
green in the field, or drive the m1Iaudinf
worms from the crops of the farmer
The wasted form Of the oak or ash is ab
sorbed by nature, tenderly buried as /
were, and enters once more into the shaft
which tower Nbovs its resting place. S,
it is with al thu material forces whicl
! hHvd their being and which are rooted il