The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1869-09-23
Geological Discoveries.

Il excavating the Kansas City bridge
pier holes, Mr.. George Morrison, the as
sistant engineer to whom was entrusted
the entire working plans, dredgcd up spe-
cimens of every kind of rock in the West
ern country, such as fell from the river
cliffs close by, and such as had descended
from the interior wales of the Rocky
Mountains Among these stones he found
teeth, the molar teeth of the Bison and
the Virginia Deer. No doubt the beds of
the Missouri and its branches are paved
with millions of these teeth, the only
relics of infinite herds which have tray
crsed the plains for scores of ages passed
awav-herds that have persisted of old
age, hunger and wild beasts, chiefly in the
neighbOrhoOd of the river banks, their
muscles and tendons stripped by the
wolves, their horns eaten up by MICE and
their indestructible and indigestible teeth
swept off with every inundation further
and further down towards the sea. The
presence of these teeth of the recent ami
mails in the present river beds leads to the
easy explanation of those vast deposits of
fossil of extinct species of land and water
animals which occur upon the slope east
of the Rocky Mountains, where the shells
and plants show that there were fresh
tween the United States and Canada.
Similar fresh water lakes once existed be-
tween the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky
Mountains, and DR.. Newberry has found
in their dried up deposits of mud and lava,
1000 feet thick, leaves of the oak, magno-
LA and other trees of great size. The
Columbia river was once merely the out
let of these Western lakes, as the Niagara
river is to-day The opening of the deep
canon, though it now pours down upon
the Pacific coasts, may have been made by
the river through the slow course OF ages,
or may have been cleft by earthquakes
but in either case we owe to II rcclama-
ton of large part of Washington Terri
tory. And change in climate also, which
is hard to measure.
The changes of climate which have hap
pened through geological ages are not
more difficult to explain than plainly stated
by the fossil shells and plants remaining
in the rocks The late Alaska expedition
brought back fossil plants from the shores
of the icy sea of Il kind to set beyond all
doubt the once semitropical character of
the Arctic skies. Between sheets of fine
hardened mudrock, are seen beautifully
pressed and delineated rine leaves a foot
in diameter oak leaves quite as large, mag
nolii, plantain and other trees..which grow
between Pennsylvania and the Gulf Of
Mexico. These same vegetable relies have
been collected at various points from the
Middle Tertiary deposits OF the Alississip-
pi valley all the way north to the Arctic
ocean and the mouth of the Mackenzie
river From the collections brought home
by the numerous Arctic expeditions to
Baffins Bay and Greenland, Professor
Heer, of Zurich, has made out more than
a hundred species of plants which grew
luxuriantly in those regions once, but now
are driven southwark by the cold; and
while these were moving southwark into
our Gulf States and Middle Europe, the
tropical vegetation OF Middle Europe was
seeking refuge for itself in Hindoostan.
Leaves that now wave in every direction
before the Indian traveller, can be split out
of the fiiocenc states of France and Ger
many.
No wonder, then, we hear of coal beds
where Sir John Franklin was lost, and on
the peninsula of Alaska. We had great
pleasure in examining hand specimens of
the Alaska coal, brought home by Mr..
Dali, and exhibited by DR.. Newberry to
the geological section of the American
Association at Salem, last week. The ac-
companying plants showed it to he terti
airy coal, like all that on the west coast
But such tertiary coal we have never be-
fore seen. 1t resembles WestmOreland gas
coal more .han anything else 1t is evi-
IDENTIFY very rich in gas, we should guess
40 per cent. or more, and very clean, or
pure from ash There was a slight show
of sulphur, but slight that we consid
cred it of very little account. The quality
of the specimen (which was, say inches
long by inches square) and its general
appearance seemed to show that the re-
ported thickness of the bed, as feet" was
not an exaggcration. All we can say, is,
Pacific coast is = great Providence. 1t
looks far ahead Mining Register.