Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-09-12

BILE stream which runs to the north along the
western base Of the mountains, and discharges
its waters into the Atlantic Ocean through
Lake Champlain and the river st. Lawrence.
In this locality mass of Ignite or brown coal
exists, in which the forms of trees were for
merly visible, and in company with which, and
generally not far from the surface of the earth,
twenty different kinds of fruit were found
varying in size from fig to barley corn.
These fruits are different from any now grow
ing in the United States. The coal TINS far
discovered there, consists of snle mass about
twenty feet in width and fourteen thick, ex-
tending obliquely into the earth in a oolumnar
form, to the depth of ninety feet. 1t is ac
oomanied with kaolin, Or porcelain clay, brown
hematite, yellow ochre, and ores of magnaness,
and was discovered in 1S40 while sinking
shafts for iron ore. The coal burns sufficient
ly we'll to be used in steam engine for raising
ore and pumping wafer from the mines.
Whether the trees of which the GOAL is formed,
and also the fruits, are of, an Indigenous
growth OF q remote period of time, when the
earth may be supposed to have possessed
more than tropical climate throughout its en-
tire surface from internal heat, or whether they
may have been brought from the present trop-
ioal regions into the straight before mentioned
by some oceauic current like that of the gulf
such phenomena naturally give rise. Shall we
allow that elephants and strange vegetation
were once native to Verm out, or shall We seek
for their origin elsewhere In order to a more
perfect comprehension of this question, we
may cast glance az other elephant remaln7
which have been discovered in various qaarterss
of the globe. .
These have been found ia great abundance
ard in great number Of locilities, ranging
through every degree of latitude in the north
ern hemisphere, from the equator to the Artic
circle. And indeed, the nearer approach
the nor hern frigid xoue, the more numerous
they seem to become. The ancient traditions
of giants mentioned in the Bible and in the
histories of Europe and of Mexico, would seem
to have ne connection with the huge bones
upon the surface of the earth, or buried with
IN 1t, that We may suppose have met the view
| and excited the speculation of the very first
races of men upon the globe. Iha bones of
elephants and other tropical animals abound in
the British Isles, and 10 that region. 1t is stat;
ed by Woodward that 2000 grinders, enough
for $50 elephants, were dredged up by the
fishermen of Happisburg during the space OF
| thirteen years. These remains were of the
species called the Mammoth, and they occur
throughout Siberia Al Eschscholtz Bay, near
| Behring's Straits, tusks gathered for ex-
| portation : and al one time it supposed
that more ivory came from Siberia than from
| India and Africa. AT the mouth Of the river
Lena, which is above the Atctic circle, in Asi
attic Russia, one of these animals WAS dfscove,
ed about the beginning of the present century
encased in ice. 1t was over sixteen feet In
length to the extremity of the tail, and upward
of nine feet in height. Il had a woody coat,
and its flesh was 50 we'll preserved as to be eat
en- by dogs.
Ron & q he tnHp -frao
ly met with in the northern haif Of the United
States. They are found in Canada and in No
va Scotia, ln the northeastern portion of the
peninsula before alluded to, and a few DO e.
have been found New Britain ana Chez
shire, In Connecticut. Five periect skeletons
have been dug VI, three from the marshes OF
Orange County, New York, where the animals
were perhaps mlred, one from morass in New
Jersey, and another on the banks OF the Als-
souri,. -.
Tne finest skeleton in any collection is that
| set up by DIR. Warren in Boston. Il was TAX
en- from one of the marshes in Orange County,
near Newburgh on the Hudson river. It's
height is eleven feei, its length to the base OF
the tail seventeen feet, and the tusks are twelve
feet long, two and one half feet being inserted
IN the sockets. When alive the animal must
have been twelve or tnirteen feet high. aud, in-
Guiding tusks, twenty five feet in length Re
mains of undg-sled food were found between
his ribs, showing that be had fed on spruce and
and 6r-trees, no. a very genial diet, would
suppose.
Many other remains besides these have been
mentioned hy Bltfon and other writer's. rhe
relics of the Big Bone Lick, near the Ohio
river, IN the northwestern part of Kentucky.
were first brough 70 the notce OF the scientific
world IN l765, hundred years ago. Thess
were found in a bank or cliff, near salt marsh
10 which the buffalo and other animals then
used TO resost for salt. The tusks found there
seemed 10 differ in material respect from
those of the elephant OF the present day.
Tney varied from five 10 seven feet IN length !;
buc the moar teeth had that peculiar mamm-
tor structure which distinguishes them from
the teeth OF the common elephant. Among
the various relics found there, f. thl- L.
| bone four and one half feet In length, watch
weighed one hundred pounds. The bones OF
| the nippopotamus, or rlver-horse, were also
discovered there, as they have been In other
| locAlitIen far north OF the tropics. Bones Of
the buffalo and the elephant found min
gled together; and why not the living ami
mails found roaming in company over the same
| plains at the present day? Why are there two
animals now confined to such separate and dis
| tine: locatlesP
| The writer then proceeds at considerable length
and with marked ability to give anu discuss the
two theories by which these things are sought
to be accounted for but this part OF tue
article would prove more interesting to the
naturalist or studeat OF Antiquarian science
than to the general reader, we omit it The
paper closes follows:
| Bat to return to our Green Mountain whale.
Its skeleton, it will be remembered, was found
imbedded in clay eight feet below the surface
| of tue earth. From this tact IL Is inferred that
| the skeleton was at one time orn7atn the sea,
either from the deaf whale sinking 10 the bot
tom, or from l,s never having ris-n to the top
that the eight feet of gravel aud clay tnen bs-
came deposited u ,on it and tnal the wates
| then subsidized, or the mountains rose higher
above It's level, leaving the skeleton il the con
diton as found. This idea seems TO receive
some confirmation from the recent discovery
of marine shells at Fort Monroe, Virginia
| which were brought up from depth OF eigni J
| feet or more below the surface OF the land aud
| the level of the sea, while sinking iron tubes
for an Artesian well. They were imbedded IL
blue clay, which lay under superstratum O
sand, forming long narrow projection OF land
between Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads
Tne whole seacoast in the region OF Fort NJ on
: roe oud seem to have subsidized from former
} higher level for instead OF exnlbitlng RIVER,
emptyin& into the sea from high lands, The ses
} seems to how In upon the land IN nulnerou
bays, creeks, sounds, roads, etc., precisely as
} would if the land were to become slowly sub
merged. Let it be supposed that the States
of Alabama and Mississippi were to sink be.ov
the level Of the Gulf of nexicO that by tn,
action of the water, clay and sand should be
come de nnsitpd unon The remains Of the whal le