The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-06-22
WHERE DO THE STONES COME
FROM.
New ENGLAND Farmer.1


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 from? One person,
tolerably well informed upon other sub
jects, would have us believe that stones
grew, a growth less rapid, doubtless,
than that of the mushroom. but growth
nevertheless another, because stones
are often found along the margins of
water courses, supposes 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 granite
boulders on hillside, gravely remarked
that ''they'd got half WAY on their down
hlII journey" To geology, the achieve
ment 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 elucidation of its prob
lens, we are indebted for the solution
of our question. Geology interprets for
US the history of our globe as it is re-
corded in that stony volume, the earth's
crust.
There seems to have been time when
the earth was in state Of fusion, and
the crust which now encloses this molten
mass, is estimated at ten miles in thick
ness. 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 terres-
trial plants of to-day, had, properly
speaking, no organs of assimilation and
nutrition, but, being rotless, were sup
ported by the direct absorption of sea
water into their cells. The first forms
of animal life were also low, being COM
posed of invertebrates, such as sponges,
corals, starfsh, mollu SKIS, etc. These
lived and died, and their remains were
entombed in the Silurian seas, just as
the remains of the marine animals of to-
day are being entombed n the present
seas. The march of time has been
march of progress. Ascending in the
scale of being, with the progress of time,
we come to the period when the fishes
were introduced; next we find an atmos-
phere laden with carbonic acid gas, the
gas in which plants revel, and more
than tropical luxuriance of vegetation
followed, and now, during space of
more than thirty millions of years, was
deposited the coal whose ruddy glow
fresides.
The atmosphere, thus deprived of it's
redundancy of a property deleterious to
animal life, the age of reptiles is usher
ed 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 be-
come the Connecticut Valley sandstone;
and reptiles, from fifteen to eighty feet
in length, roamed at their own sweet
will, or, provided with wings having an
expanse of from twenty-five to forty feet,
flew threw the air. Then came the ter
tiary, the age of the first general il tro-
duction of mammals. As the time for
the advent of men drew near, the pre-
parations which had been going on
through all the ages, to fit the earth for
his habitation, approached completion.
n ln oil of
awaited his requisition. and the rocks
and atmosphere contained the constitu-
ents from which his physical frame was
to be formed. But how should these
latter be made available2 Obviously
through the medium of the vegetable
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
require only carbon, and small portion
of silex to give them the necessary rigi-
dity, but more was necessary they
must contain phosphorus and lime for
the bones, iron for the blood, and in
short, all the constituents of the human
frame
And now comes the last grand over
turning of the series which the earth has
undergone. Soil must be formed. Over
tho northern hemisphere there stretched
vast sheet of ice, more than 5000 feet
in thickness. Of the cause of this re-
frigeration, geologists are not agreed.
It may have been from an elevation of
the arctic lands, thus turning away the
Gulf Stream, or from some eccentricity
of its orbit the earth may have been de-
prived of its accustomed heat from the
sun. BE this as it may, this vast glacier.
more than eight times the thickness of
any modern glacier, went tearing its way
down to the sea, crushing and grinding
as it went-no wonder that vast masses
of rock were torn from their beds, and
carried along to be crus he'd, or even
pulveriZed, in its track, and it Ia fact
that boulders, by their Theological char
acteristics, may be traced to their origin
in q northerly direction and generally at
a distance of from n few miles, to 100 or
200. The finer materials usually settled
in water resulting from the melting of
the glacier, which accounts for our soils
being disposed in layers, and the stones
were promiscuously deposited. Then
came the grand consummation of all, the
result toward which the preparations of
all the ages had been tending-man,
Il: n. Icl-