The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-11-19
MERCANTILE COURSE.
Lecture by Rev. e. G. ROLES of Salem.

The fourth lecture in the Mercantile Library
Association was delivered at the City Hall last
evening by the Rev. e. G. Bolles OF Salem,
formerly of this city. The subject which was
'The Little Builders of the Earth" was
beautifully illustrated by means of the stereop-
ticon which threw microscopic images against
large SCREEN Mr.. Bolles is we'll known in
this city and his lectures on the microscope a
year or two since greatly entertained the citi-
zens of Portland. He is an enthusiast in the
study of the minute forms of animal and vega
table life, and his store of knowledge coupled
with an easy and graceful flow of expression
renders his lectures very popular and instruct
i've. In opening Mr.. Bolles said that there wa,
no story more interesting than that which
geology told us. Fifty years ago but little was
known as to who the real builders of the earth
were, but the microscope had thrown great
deal of light on the subject. He would first
speak of the rock builders. He described a
little organism found attached to seaweeds.
These consisted of little cubes of crystal joined
like necklaces. These cubes enclosed little
spherical dot or cell, which was living organ
ism, and which had the power of attracting to
itself the silica or flint from the water around
it, and forming a hard covering which would
melt no sooner than glass. This was one of
the simplest of plant life known--only single
cell enclosed in a crystal cube. These diatoms,
as they were called, though almost invisible
were shown by the microscope to be covered
with beautiful sculpture, in regular and SYM
metrical forms. The city of Berlin was built
IL IL r l.oko
The bed was 100 feet thick and the diatoms
were so small that there were 100000 in an
inch. The city of Richmond was also built
over such a bed, and if human mummies were
substituted for the diatoms they would be piled
to height equal to half of the earth's dame
ter, or 1000 miles. These diatoms were propa-
gated with marvellous rapidity by another cell
forming and the cube containing it splitting off.
One single diatom would increase to twenty
tive in one minute and to one million in TWEEN
ty-four hours. The Nile and the Ganges were
made shallow by them, and to them the Arctic
Ocean owed its hue of deep olive green. Along
the coast of Patagonia they had built a great
band of white stone, and the Victoria barrier,
for four hundred miles along the great Antar-
tic glacier, was built by them. Wherever wa
ter was they were found, slowly and surely
building up the substance of the globe. The
existence to animal life. They were formed by
microscopic animals, simply little masses of
jelly which had the power of attracting to
themselves with a calcereous secretion from
the water around them. The sea was filled
with these creatures, which dying, dropped
their living covering to the bottom of the sea.
The delicate gray limestone of which Paris was
built was made by these creatures, and the
great range of the Andes was in places entirely
formed by them. Thus it was seen that the
far greater influence in the formation Of the
earth than the elephants, whales and mann
moths at which we wondered So We had been
told that in the depths of the sea there was no
life; but deep-sea dredging showed that it was
teemiDg with life. The dredge often came up
filed with Shiny ooze of geiatinous mass, ali
of which was living matter. The bottom of
the sea was carpeted with living mass of
creatures, the like of which had built the chalk
cliffs of England. So the microscope gave a
good look and long look into the history of
the world.
Mr. Bolles went ON to describe the fuel build. |
ers. He showed on the screen pictures of the |
beautiful fern impressions found in coal beds. |
The coal formation of the earth were built by
the lives of plants. The propagation of ferns
by the spores on the back of the leaves was de-
scribed. Whole masses Of coal were accumu-
lated and compressed fern spores Coal was
formed not only of the ferns but of the gigantic
vegetation.
Much good poetryand bad science had been |
written about the coral insect building the is |
lands up from the bottom of the sea. The |
truth was that there was no coral insect, but |
the coral formation was owing to the polyps |
who built on the tanks of the sinking islands |
of the ancient sea. The coral was simply the |
skeleton of the dead polyp secreted in the same |
way as our bones were formed.
The last described were the frost builders.
Mr.. Bodies first told about the concrete, the |
glaciers, ice fields and snow drifts. We were |
accustomed to speak of winter as the season in |
which there was an absence of lfe but it was |
a time when mighty forces vera at work. He |
went on to speak Of the powers of crystalliza- |
ton, and showed some beautiful forms of snow |
crystals We might as well try to count the |
sands of the desert as the various forms of |
the snow crystals. 1t was remarkable that |
when moses of solid ice melted the crystals |
in exactly the shape in which they |
were formed. The lecture closed with beau
tful illustration of the forces of Capitalization
at work, made by foodinga glass plate with |
salts dissolved in alcohol. The evaporation Of |
the alcohol produced crystals on the glass. and |
on the screen the rays conld be seen shooting |
and forming, much as the auroral light shoots |
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