Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-01-21
THE VERMONT VOLUNTEER.
A sosa BY REV. WIN. poRD.

- A soNa BY REV. WIN. poRD.
The following Song, being No, i6 Of our late
prize collection was one Of the few that received
an honorable mention from the Committee. J. YER
mont Record.
Three cheers for thy Green Mountain Boys, old
Who fought for our country SO dear;
When dangers were thickest thoy rushed to the
feel.
1hree y. ,re for each brave Volunteer!
The thunder +, .,amter aroused all their pride,
As its echoes fell sad on the ear;
And TO join in the conflict each young hero
Three cheers Tor the brave Volunteer.
Thy va 'eys sha shout to their praise, old Yer
mon,
And hii-tops re osho the cheer;
And granite and marble proclaim DER their dust
Thy love for the brave Volunteer;
The spirit Of Allen ard Stark strung their nerves,
They neither knew failure, nor fear;
And a Swiss love of freedom burned bright IN the
OF each gallant and brave Volunteer.
All dear to each heart was thy fame, old vcr.
mont
Aud the pathway Of duly was clear;
And thy ancient renown a new luster has
BY the deeds of ca III brave Volunteer;
A halo Of glory shall circle each brow,
Ihe dead be oulblln Il IN our tears,
And a country united, when Victory is ours,
Shall honor thy brave Volunteers.
Then hurrah! for thy Green Mountain Boys, old
Vermont,
Their bays shall grow green with the years
With patriot so diers, from each loyal State,
Side by side stood thy brave VolunteerN
They struck for their country, for Freedom and
d Right,
And led for their hello did appear
And mIlliOu4 lInborn. of the wise "A nd the
Shall huzza for this brave Volunteer.
The Great Descrt--New Discoveries.
The discoveries of recent African ex-
plorers have dispelled the popular no.
tions concerning the great desert of Sa-
hara. IL used to be described as a nearly
level sandy plain. This plain, il
is now ascertained, does not exist, ex-
cept at its eastern and western cx-
tremities. The central portions rise. in
the form of terraces, to 900 or 200 feet
above the valleys of the Atlas and Sou
dan. They are intcrspersed with ravines
and granite hills, Barth speaks OF
mountains 1000 or 5000 feet high. In
general, however, the surface of the des-
ert is fiat or slightly undulating; in
some places covered with a thick bed OF
sand, in Others hard and hinty. Every
aspect confirms the opinion of Hum
bolt, that the desert Is the bed of form
er sea, elevated by geological convul-
sions. The traveller, almost at every
step, meets with mounds of fossil shells
and other debris of marine animals.
There are immense deposits of rock salt,
in some places as pure as marble, and so
compact as to serve in the construc-
ton of houses. Soudan derives salt from
this source. The efhorescencc of Nitro
and saltpctre is almost everywhere ap-
parent w
Lions, tigers, and other ferocious animals
with which the desert has, in Imagination,
been peopled, are met with only in the
forests of the GASES, where they can find
food and water. The lion is the king of
the desert only in poetry. Man is the
true wild animal with whom the travel
er breads an encounter, and bandits in
fest every caravan route in the Sahara.
The Sahara is not always destitute of
water. In passing between the tropics,
the sun carries with him heavily laden
nimbus clouds, which, not meeting with
any mountains high enough to condense
dilu CduSC IN W ldll DIT
intervals, descend occasionally by their
own gravity, and drop their watery
treasures in gushing torrents, which fill
every ravine. 1t is deluge which lasts
but for u moment; the water disappears
in the permeable soil as fast as it came,
and forms extensive sheets of water
short distance below the surface This
fact has been revealed by numerous
soundings. Already excellent artesian
wells, sunk by French engineers, have
created verdant GASES in places where
every vestage of vegetation appeared to
be eternally buried beneath the sand
But these hidden lakes, on which the
desert partly reposes, are not q recent
discovery From time immemorial the
Arabs have sunk in the open desert wells
several hundred feet deep till they met
the watery bed which they called the
Subterranean sea