The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1868-04-15
! THE WORLD OF SCIENCE
Five Years Researches-in Ne.
York--By Professor CnafSs
HyHftchcOck: * !,
COAL. AND PEpRoIEUA


bve GOAL COAL AND PEHReEEpM. ~
The people iofi EnghBd are becomi
ing alarmed at the predictions recently
given out respecting bthe speedy ex-
haustion of their coal and meia.ss--
They have reason for their fears since
the ratio at which the mineral resources
of any prosperous country are mined is
arithmetical J. and when thearea is small,
with a denss population, the drain is
excessive, tending to exhustion. The
copper of Cornwall is yearly gone and
lthetis is growing scarce, and in less
than century, American coal will be
imported into England. Our coalfelds
are boundless, with preponderance of
the bituminous variety. The anthra-
cite will last longer than the English
Goals. but will be, exhausted in two
hundred years, provided its use in-
creases in the same arithmetical pro-
portion as the former. oe'
Within the paat few years petroleum
has becomea q source of wealth second
in importance only to coal and iron,
and its ,use has effected as great q
change in the Industry of the country
as the early days of anthracite The
science oftheInation has been dilligent-
ly employed in ascertaining the laws Of
its distribution, its chemical compost
tiou, and he uses. to which it is best
adapted. Z, &c ~ uei19ais hTrS ~
THE WORLD BEFORE LIFE afd
Recent Investigations and controver-
sizes have given. greater stability to spec
ulations relatiruTto rue history of the
world before the introdue Ion of life,
even though the first formed rocks are
concealed from view. The period can
with great probability be divided into
successive eras, as we'll marked and as
certainly as the ages of paleontonogy,
the pahozoic, merozoic, Sc. The sue
cessive series of conditions from the
present back to the first, each an inn
provemsnt over its predecessor, lead US
clearly to the time when the atoms
were created out of nothing by an Al
mighty Power. Any other view is at
varicnoe with the strictest induction.
The first period after creation, of
which the evidence is marked, was the
condition of nebulosity, primarily, of
the whole planetary system in one mass
secondarily, of the earth by itself; the
vapors were condensed into an igneous
liquid, an universal ocean of fire third,
Refrigeration, caused crust to form
over the raging billows, and chemical
agencies operated with vigorous intens
ity. The atmosphere was composed of
deadly gases, acid fumes, and all the
water of the oceans in the state of va
per. The first rain was of an acid
character, and the torrents ,deluging
our saline compounds from the slag of
the outer crust. giving US salt ocean
from the very first, The fourth pc.
riod showed the atmosphere purified
from the acids and oceanic rapors, and
the work of working away old CONT
-nentsito make new ones. commenced, a
task never completed SO long as rain
falls and water runs. III
How long this process of denudation
continued before the opening of the
6fth period, when life came into being,
it is impossible to say, for the records
of the varied successions are concealed
beneath the debris of later ages, the
strata containing the cocoon. This was
when the continents were like the des-
ert of Sahara, and the curse of barren
ness was relieved only by scanty ma
rins Vegetation. and invisible animals
were constructing the ribs Of continents
beneath the briny surface.
GLACIAL PERIOD.
y Just before the age of man the tenn
perate zones were covered by Polar ice.
providing toward the equator. The
opinion is rapidly, gaining ground that
this ice was mainly glacial, and not
oceanic; that, the transport of ma
terial was not SO much produced by
ieebergs r,as those slow-moving frozen
rivers of ice, the glaciers
And yet it was Of continental pro-
portions, working its way northerly
from Canadian highlands toithe Amer
,iean pl4ins and bills, with a width
equal to the space between the eastern
ocean 6 border and the lead region of
Wisconsin. The glaciers upon both
slopes of the Rocky Mountains seem
to have been of local character, like
those of Switzerland, sliding down the
valleys without ascending any cf the
hills There were also local glaciers in
New Ed gland, as well as a subsequent
period of submergency.
- ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
In no rrspe ot bus tll,ero 2: s:reester
progress of scientific thought the past
few years than in relation to the an
tiquity of man. Extravasant estimates
have been hastily made upon Insult :
cient data, but rejecting these. there
remains still strong probability of the
existence of races allied to the lap
landers aud North American Indians,
several thousand years anterior to the
epoch of the Adanic creation
Indisputable proofs of the contem-
poraneity of these races with extinct
mamnoths, lions and bears, fave been
found 10 New England, France, Spain,
Italy and other European countries, as
well as in NJ ississippi and California in
the New World. This fact. when is
.olated, is indeeisive of, great or little
antiquity but when its collateral re-
lations are developed, tits found that
this contemporapeity continued through
a long unbroken period, reminding one
of more ancient ones, and that these
earlier races were dispossessed of their
domains by the, invadinp Noachic ma
tiops, and we are compelled to believe
that the highest types of mankind
were preceded bv aboroina1 tribes in