Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-06-09
TbeOermont 4Benit.
BRATTLEBORO;
FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE o, 1876.



Riding or walking, wherever we go, we
meet with stones from the size of the tiny
pebble, TO that of the huge boulder, and the
question naturally arises, where do they
all come fromH One person, tolerably
we'll informed upon other subjects, would
have us believe that stones grow, growth
less rapid, doubtless, than that OF the
mushroom, but growth, nevertheless;
another, because stones are often found
along the margins of wafer courses, sup
poses that water has some agency in their
production both of which theories are as
illogical and wide of the mark as was that
of the Scotchman, who, seeing some gran
tic boulders on hillside, gravely remark
cd that "they'd got half way, on their
down hill journey" TO geology, the
achievement of the present century, and
the newest of the sciences, inasmuch as it
is founded upon them all, calling them all
to its aid in the calculation Of its problems,
we are indebted for the solution OF our
question. Geology interprets for us the
history of our globe as it is recorded in
that stony volume, the oarths crust.
There seems TO have been time when
crust which now encloses this molten mass,
is estimated at ten miles in thickness. At
depth of about six miles occur the first
traces of the existence of life, and these
first organisms were doubtless sea weeds,
the lowest order of plants plants which,
unlike the terrestrial plants of to-day, had
properly speaking, no organs of assimla-
ton and nutrition, but being rootless,
were supported by the direct absorption OF
sea wat err into their cells. The first forms
of animal life were also low, being compos-
ed of invertebrates, such as sponges, cor
ais, starfsh, mollusks, &c. These lived
and died, and their remains were entomb-
cd in the Silurian seas, just as the remains
of the marine animals of to-day are being
ontombcd in the present seas. The march
of time has ever been march OF progress
Ascending in tho scale of being, with the
progress of time, we come TO tho period
when fishes were introduced; next we
find an atmosphere laden with carbonic
acid gas, the gas in which plants revel, and
Il more than tropical luxuriance of vcgeta-
ton followed, and now, during space of
moro than thirty millions of years, was de-
posted the coal whose ruddy glow lends
It's charm to our winter evening tiresides.
The atmosphere, thus deprived of its re-
dundancy of property deleterious to ami
NAL life, the age of reptiles is ushcred in ;
birds as tall as the tallest man, literally
left their footprints on the sands of time"
by impressing them in the yielding sands,
which have since become the Connecticrt
Valley sandstone; and reptiles, from tif-
teen 10 eighty feet in length, roamed at
their own sweet wills, or, provided with
wings having an expanse of from twenty
tivo 10 forty feet flew through the air.
Then came the tertiary, the age of the first
Observation-Disclosures of mammals. AS the
time for the advent of man drew near the
preparations which had been going on
through all the ages, to fit the earth for his
habitation, approached completion. Beds
of tho metals, of coal and salt awaited his
requsition, and the rocks and atmosphere
contained the constituents from which his
physical frame was TO be formed. But
how should these latter be made available?
Obviously through the medium of the veg
etable Kingdom. Doubtless the scant soil
which the tertiary elements had released
would have afforded sufficient nourish-
ment for the growth Of the plants them
selves, for plants for their own growth re-
uuire only carbon, and Il small portion of
slick to give them the necessary risidty,
but more was necessary they must con-
tain phosphorus and lime for the bones,
iron for the blood, and in short, all the con-
stituents of the human frame.
And now comes the last grand overturn-
ing of the series which the earth has I'M
dergoue. Soil must be formed. Over the
northern hemisphere there stretched u vast
sheet of ice, more than 5000 feet in thick
ness. Ofthc cause Of this refrigeration, Sc
ologists are not agreed. 1t may have been
from an elevation of the arctic lands, thus
turning away the Gulf Stream, or from
some eccentrcity of its orbit the earth may
have been deprived of its accustomed heat
from the sun. BE this as it may, this vast
glacier, more than eight times the thick
ness Of any mod ern glacier, went tearing
its way down 10 the sea, crushing anC
grinding as it wcnt-no wonder that vas
masses of rock were torn from their beds
and carried along 10 be crushed, or ever
pulveriZed, in its track, and it is a fact
that boulders, by their Theological charac
terislios, may be traced 10 their origin in
northcrly direction and generally at dis
lance of from n few miles, to 100 or 200
The finer materials usually settled in wa
ter resulting from the melting of the gla
cier, which accounts tor our soils being
disposed in layers, and The stones wer,
promscuously deposited. Then came the
grand contamination OF ALL the result
toward which the preparations of all thC
ages had been tending-nan, made in thS
image of his Maker, and but a little lower
than the angels, was created. Does the
reader doubt the origin of the myriads o
stones which lie everywhere, as thus brief
ly sketched, let him go rs Agasslz did, tc
the Alpine glaciers, for confirmation
OR N T. FlyyaPr