Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-10-06

low Jne Oruludry lcNcli duu bhO SCtelO-
ment varies from three to seven feet.
The length Of this batture is seven hun
dred and fifty feet; and its width one
hundred and twenty feet; it is stated that
the City Surveyor after making deep
borings made with view to Investigate
the strata for the construction of a work
to prevent further sinkage, has been able
to find nothing sufficiently firm to sus-
tain such work Another depression
on the space over which the Ponchar.
train and Chattanooga railroads are laid
has caused great trouble, In Southern
New York last fall three acres of land,
heavily timbered with hemlock, it was
stated, suddenly sank below the surface
of the surrounding country. AT the
time it was asserted that the highest
trees in this tract were mot to be seen
above the banks and around the rim OF
the depressed area A few months ago
we had the intelligence of the sinking of
the bed of the Monticello and Port Jervis
railway, near the former place, to the
depth Of ten feet, and only a week or
two since we had the still more startling
announcement of similar phenomenon
on the line of the New Jersey Midland
railroad, the workmen discovering in the
morning that several rods of grading they
had left the night before had, in the short
space of twelve hours, entirely disap-
peared, and water and loose mud of un-
determined depth was all that could be
seen. So remarkable and impressive
was the fact that it has given rise to
popular belief in a subterranean lake.
In the immediate vicinity of this sunken
spot are numerous boiling springs. Even
later, only day or two ago, we had the
statement that the orange region in
Florida had suddenly sunk, leaving
sea of rushing, seething waters, where,
before were trees and verdure in most
glorious bloom. 1t is usual to refer such
agitations to the agency of volcanic
force and fre-an explanation by no
means agreeable, and yet, there is reason
to believe, not more scientific than agree
able. The great volcanic lines on the
globe cling with remarkable tenacity to
the chaffed and wave-worn edges of the
great oceanic basins and Mediterrane-
ans. There is no authenticated in
formation of the existence of any
decided volcano within the central area
of any of the earth's great land
masses. Humboldt, in his narrative of
travels in Central Asia, gives the
reports and rumors of exceptional exist
ence there of some feeble fires bursting
through the earth's crust, but his infor
nation has, to this day, lacked the con-
firuation of Asiatic explorers. 1t is not
probable that the seething of the vast
Plutonic furnaces has any vent in the
regions OF our recent disturbances. In
deed, it is almost capable of demonstra.
ton that volcanic belts skirt the sea and
occupy its island, not merely because
the lines which limit the continents are
those Of geologic fracture and may com
municate with the earth's molten inte-
rior. but also because water must be
near enough and in large quantities to
supply the gigantic boiler for the steam
erupted. Were the agitations and con-
yulsions of the earth within few
reported in the United States
due to volcanic energy we might justly
apprehend some such terrific displays rs
occurred in 1907, when the roaring of
St. Vincent was heard seven hundred
miles distant, and, as subsequently,
when the Chilean furnace of Antuco
sent stones flying TO distance of
thirty-six miles, and Cotopaxi hurled
a two-hundred ton rock nine miles from
It's crater.
II has been beautifully said that we
live upon ball that has been molten
by heat, and chilled TO solid and
sculptured by water.p This last appa-
rently weak, easily furrowed and yield
ing agent is yet even more potential
han the nosiest Vesnvius. Aqueous
action, in its silent but intense opera
lion, producing stratification and ac-
by metamorphism, is the
great fact of geology. The giant oak,
the storms Of ages, owes its
yigor and stability to the ceaseless cur
rent of sap, that circulates through its
issues everywhere, and causes that con.
inuAl change and replacement we call
ife. So also must the globe itself pre-
serve its life by that perpetual cireula-
ion of which water is the circulating
Water is the life-blood Of the
earth. Every fragment of limestone,
sandstone and clay in our rocks has
been formed in contact with water, and
contains water Ia o fluid state mixed |
up with it. Replacing the old and |
worn out material by new material, sep !
lrating that which has done its work |
md enabling it to enter into new com
linations and new spheres OF usefulness,
Fater is truly the divine symbol of life |
md energy and order; and If at times It
occasions alarm and popular sensation,
Is in. the instances allnded TO in the out
yet Of this article, we should rather re-
oice than shudder at the evidences ofits
,enign activity.
Ifinodern geology has not successfully
,rappled with many great problems, 1t
las clearly settled one point-the appa-
ent repose Of the earth crust, the foun-
latiOn and floor of mans habitation, is
unreal and illusory. Observations for
period Of twenty years, in the present
century, in which there has been nothing
o interrupt the publication of unusual
show that in Europe and
IS adjacent islands, although far removed
rom the equator Tor parent belt of dis
urbance, at least forty earthquakes or
hooks are felt every year, or one in
very nine days--the sure indicators Of
-ast internal changes, showing the shall
owness Of the scoffers Of old, who cried,
Where is the promise Of His ooming2
or since the fathers fell asleep all things
continue as they we're from the begin
iing."
Ii is a fortunate thing that modern