The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1869-08-12
JACKSON STANDARD.
THURSpAY, AUGUST u, 1868.
rorrgI (3umo Of CopaIg.

Professor w III. Cunning contrib
utes to the Philadelphia CoachmGker's
.Iournal an article on the above subject.
He says: aAmber aud copal are so en-
tirely of the past that Nature, it would
seem, has forgotten how to make them.
They come down TO us from out of the
by-gone ages, although 10 place has
been found iOr them on the page of the
geologist. Commerce has made them
known to the world and science has
anlast interpreted their origin.
EVERY one has seen gum bleeding
from a cherry-tree. This gum is a
hydro-carbon, inodorous aud soluble in
water. Imagine the gum, hard as the
wood that bleeds it. soluble only in al
cohol, and that only when oxidized,
aud you have amber or copal. In some
olden time, trees long extinct-the
Pinus succinifSr-wero standing on the
shores Of the Baltic. Another species,
with q more formidable name-the
El1oeGpus eopahtsr--was growing over
the desert of Africa and in South
America If now We approach the
Baltic, and dig down to the old tree
bearing soil, we find clumps of amber
gum bled from the Succinifer. Speci-
mens are found now and then on our
continent, at Cape Sable and Gay Head.
Gum from the c0pdlifer is called copal.
Copal does not differ essentially from
amber. 1t is more abundant aud more
accessible. The beginning was far
back in the golden age of Africa, be-
fore the wind and the sand had made a
desolation of her great plain. How
impenetrable the gloom and mystery
which veil this land of the sun Here
10 desert, parched and blasted, the
same to-day as when the caravans
tracked it, with the stars for chart and
compass, in the days of the Pharaohs
Men have thought of it as a prima
blight, q brand Of some great curse OF
the new. created world. And yet tina
plain, so desolate now, was covered
once with majestic forest. The tree
have perished, and their sap alone re
mains to tell that they were. Under
burning sun these trees were bleeding
gum insects came to sip it, lit, mired
the nectar flowed around them an,
sntombed them; the trees perished
but time has wrought their blood int
gems, aud here are the insects to-da
embalmed in their crystal tOmbs for
ever. A hundred thousand death
could not disturb even the dust upo
their wings.
sour fathers used to puzzle owe
these insects in amber. The ambe
itself was a mystery, and then the in
sect-how did it ever get there. W
no longer wonder how the insect gc
there, but how long it has been there
Negroes find the copal down eve
eighty feet in the desert sand w
infer that in places the soil from whic
the copal tree grew was buried undC
eighty feet Of sand and clay. We hay
no data by which we can fix the tim
demanded for such change, but W
know enough to assure us that it mul
be reckoned in thousands of year
The revolutions of nature, from forel
TO desert, are never achieved in day
''In general the greatness of chang
10 measure OF the time. In genera
we say. Where man comes in as
disturbing force, desolation or abund
ancO follows quickly in his path. Th
plains Of Babylonia, so fertile in th
days Of the great Babylon, tho border
Of Lake Gallilee, so beautiful when I'll
Savior was wont to seek them, are no
desolate.
"The crimes Of men shave dried U
realms TO deserts" Nature has dor
the same, but she il never a swift arcl
itect Of ruin. To have wrought Il
extinction Of q race oftrees from Afric
and buried the soil which bore thel
under eighty feet Of sand. must haV
required many ages. The fly or mott
which looks as II It had just lit in il
crystal coffin, may have been there
hundred thousand years. We are YER
sure It was there, just as you see
to-day, long before there was any ma
upon the earth.
"a race OF trees persisted from tn
earth, and left no wood or bark to te
that they lived, no seed or scion
perpetuate their kind, but their saI
their spiFit--a mere aroma which el
halsd from their wounds-this remainl
9 thing Of beauty while everything thi
was earthly has orumbled to DUST
Eai..a,a. Lsa..,.n.