Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-04-19
WHOLE NUMBER 7O4.

euge, yet VIII say III reiaIlOn 10 tnaC
river, that there have been many
changes Of its bed within the authentic
historic period; and of the brick, that
Mr.. S. Birch, distinguished anti
quarian in charge of the British Muse
um, says that he has in his cara
brick exactly similar to the fIarrnent
found in boring the delta. which came
from Theban tomb, and bears the
inscription of Thcthmes, who liv"d
about one thousand four hundred AMI
fifty years before Christ. This was
decidedly before the Roman power,
and would indicate that we might be-
lieye the Bible when it speaks of max
ing brick in connection with Israel
itish Slavery. OF the delta of the
Mississippi can more def i'elS
speak. 1t has recently been thoroughly
examined hy the United States gov
erLment survey under the direction
of Messrs. Humphreys and Abbott.
| Without attempting to state all the
facts accumulated, | will say that they
| measured its size, and from carefully
prepared data found that at present
| it advances at the rate of two hundr ed
and siXty-twO feet per anuum. In
| this manner it would require bl their
estimate about 1000 years for its en-
/ tire formation, and reason will teach
] pc fhat h.. .
! ed its flow it would be formed much
| faster than at present, and thai 5000
years may be nearer the approximate
time.
This calculation is founded upon
the most accurate survey possible. -
Sir Charles Lyell rode over it, mak-
ing a pleasant trip 10y bird shooting
and the like; while the United States
survey have measured it. not only in
surface, but in thickness, so as to know
not only in the number of square feet
1t contains, but the weight OF the ma
terial. 1t does not require geolo,
giSt to judge in this matter. The
skeleton hardly requires mention;
as he admits it to be like our Indians.
and no one believes that our Indians
inhabited this land for fifty thousand
years. OF cave deposits, as Charles
Lye!l is the principal writer, we can
gain little only by his records. | will
not try to gainsay his statements of
facts, as | believe them reliable, but |
will neither adopt his opinion OF them.
, Let US look at the facts as stated. He
finds man coeval with existing animals.
; also with the Cave Bear and Masto-
! don, now extinct. If the Bible is
: true, this is what we must expect
: We do not wish to gainsay it. He
says at least fifty thousand years must
be required to make those cave de-
poslts, yet on the same page gives his
scale by saying that those uarl beds
are sometimes near thirty feet thick,
: yet he has found in them alders erect
! as they grew, with their roots imbeded
= in the original soil. Now which. in
: your opinion, is most likely, that al.
, ders would staId twenty five thou
sand years erect, to be buried 10y sue
cessive over flows of river running
J., through an inhabit, d country, so as to
= convey the remains OF man, with other
2 debris, around them, or that by some
J remarkable dtvastari0n this was all
accomplished in short space of
. time? The average life Of az alder is
q perhaps twenty five years, and five
hundred years III any country is snffi-
D cient to change the growth of TIM .bcr
n from soft to hard wood, or at least
: may do it. In this country it is fre-
a quently done in the lifetime of single
e generation.
Even the advocates OF mans great
: antiquity do not like to hear much
: sa!d about the California skulls. lis
= history as a country has been one Of
l foods and earthquakes. In the food
of 1856, Tilton ard Mcfarland, safe
d manufacturers in New York, had
safe weighing five tons buried so deep
d in the quicksands of the Sacramento
/ that though it contained six hundred
+ thousand dollars of gold on deposit,
: it could never be found, though the
! most that wealth could do or science
! sugges' by way OF delicate magnetic
. apparatus, which it is supposed the
e massive iron would attract, was tried
in vain. If 90 large an article could
# be so effectuaIy lost, why could not
;, now and then one of the many who
t lost their lives be so deeply inferred
d as to excite surprise when future gen.
If erations mine their bones. Yetof the
It skulls found, it is even wanting con-
s firmation that they were found at any
a such depth as represented. The tracks
l. on the bank of the Mississippi, Prof.
?. Owen, the owner. says, are engraved
k or cut by hand in the rock. He has
r, exhibited them, and done everything
y to render their examination by scien-
e, ti6c men critical, and the result is that
, they are pronounced purely artificial.
;. Lyell says in conclusion of his chap
r, ter, where he thinks he proves man
/ antiquity. as have before stated, that
!. he agrees with Prof. Aga -siZ-"That
D. whenever new and startling fact is
h brought to light in science, people
e will first say it is not true, then that
" it is contrary to religion, and lastly
It that everybody knew it before" We
c. shall, | think, all Of US speak in diff
l. ferent manner of his discoveries. First
,r we will say that he has done much
a. for science and religion, as he has
Y. shown that the remains of man can
in 0e found where the Bible teaches thev
should be, with all Of the last creation
ID of animate matter, whether now living
1t or extinct. Secondly, that he has CIV
p. en- to the world with these tacis bob
o by, which man may reject or adopt at
re will, "a 1t Is fairly done, and h. d cs
Ne not make facts suppnlt it, but records
| them honestly, aud then, like The case
es of the alders, construe them to his
a, opinion of time. They are thus easily
ne separated, and the discoveries he has
C. made of value.
es We will now speak of the food
There has been time in the history
OF of man when all the changes evident
H. ly made by water upon the surface of
~ the earth were supposed to be due to
m Noah's food. But as investigation