Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1868-08-04
The last Chapter of Earth's History
in Vermont.

itself geological wonder, is stratum
of clay containing brown coal and one
of the ores of iron. The coal is
little more than charred wood. The
texture is not wholly destroyed
Nuts and fruit abound in the stratum.
The marking On many of the nuts is
quite distinct even to the naked eye.
The microscope reveals the structure
so perfectly that we do not hesitate
to refer some species to an order Of |
trees belonging to the torrid zone.
The buckthorn and star apple of the
South are almost the only representa-
tive of the order in our country. In
the age of these Brandon clays, Yer
mont had tropical climate and the
slopes Of the Green Mountains were
clad in palms aud stately sappodillas.
Clay strata OF the same age in Mar
tha's Vineyard and in Virginia con-
tains the bones and teeth of whales
and the teeth Of gigantic sharks
The Brandon clay tells you that in
some long ago the Western slopes
of the Green Mountains formed the
shore Of a tropical sea and the clays
Of Gay Head tell you what leviathans
peopled that Tertiary sea. These
Tertiary strata-as the Brandon
hold the record Of d recent period of
earth history. Two facts will give
us vague conception Of Vermont
history after the formation of Bran
don clay and coal The strata is COW
cred with gravel, clay or sand form
ing what we shall call "the Drift. -
In this drift at Mt, Holly men have
discovered the remains of a great ele-
phant. The mastodOn-that was the
name-was a third larger than the
living elephant. In a deposit over
lying this bowlder drift, in the town
of Charlotte, the bones of whale
were found. Elephants and whales
once in Vermont How vast and
vague the ages since the Brandon
clay the age from the elephant to
the whale! Have these ages left any
records on the rocks which science
may decipher? In every town in the
State, YOU will find loose, transport
ed masses of granite, quartz, slate or
green stone. BOwlders we call them.
BY studying the rocks in the noun
tainS and lodges, we can almost trace
the powders back to their parent
beds, In Nottingham you may see a
bowider which weighs about 3,400
tons, an& ne character Of the rock
Identifies it with the Green Mountain
range which lies northweStward over
the valley of Deerield river. Hun
dredS OF powders lie strewn all over
mountains or ledges in the North OF
Northwest. And III almost every town
hedges OF rock are found planed down
polished and Scratched-the scratches
or grooves running generally South
ward. You will find these scratche.
high up Oh the mountains; on Mans
held Mountain, above the chin. Some
tremendous force, there, has acted OIL
the earth moving Southward, crush
ing the rocks into gravel, and sowing
the hills and valleys with powders
The flood overtopped tn e Green
Mountains and scored Mansfield tt
the "Chin, and Mt. Washington VI
5 ZOO from the sea level. In such q
sketch as this | cannot give the facts
which lead US to say that this was al
'ice food" Since the time of the
Brandon clays, the State has passed
from tropical climate to a polar. L
has been under vast sea of gIacia
Ice. When the ice period had passed
1t was peopled by gigantic elephants
Then the face OF New England, New
York and the Provinces sunk, at leas
500 feet, and part of the State be
came tuu bottom OF an ocean tenanteC
by whales. And these changes coulC
not have been paroxysmal. Glacia
epochS are periodical. Provision fo
glacial winters, deSolating the eartl
and securing the granite into soil, il
fixed as deeply in the constitution OF
nature as the provision for a winter
every twelve month. Each is rhyth
} mical, or winter coming with the year
ly revolution Of the earth in its orbit
and the glacial winter returning will
the rythm ot illc urDiL from circle t.
eclipse. Ihe astronomer has shown
Us that the earths orbit pulses to ant
fro from a circle to a long eclipse
and recent Investigations have showI
! that when the orbit is most eliptical
and the winters of the North hemi
sphere occur III that part Of the orbi
most from the sun, the North hemi
sphere will have glacial epoch.
find Sir William Grove, and Sir Johl
Herschel maintaining, from astronomi
cal calculations, that the last glacia
: epoch closed about 100000 year
: ago! And that is only moment il
geological time. From the BrandoI
coal you read of a tropical sea, an,
: the slopes of the Green Mountain
clad in palms and sappodilIas; from
the gravel, the powders, the scoret
a valley and mountains, you read of 1
glacial winter, when Vermont la,
e shackled in ice, as Northern Green
land to-day; from the Mt. Holly ele
phant. of land again and its life, am
Y the Charlotte whale of the ocea
< and its life. Here is a succession oI
events, and astronomy helps US t
estimate the time since the last event
w. d. CUNNING, IN Rutland Herat,
| i 4.