The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-03-28
VIRGINIA.

There is a fascination in the contemplation
Of that historic period, whose natural
record is all that is left US, to which the
most Indifferent are more or less suscepti-
| BILE. The little man of to-day who struts
the earth, creations lord, knows not how
small he is, nor why, nor how he came.
Millions of ages have gone before, each bear
ing, in its time, its type, and millions more
will come, produce their species and give
place to earth's SUGGESTIONS. No one who
has been an attentive listener to Major
| Hotchkiss' lectures, and noted how the
world from chaos came, and how. through
| all its vast formations, each age has played
| its part and passed away, leaving its faith
full records, can still the speculative or fall
| to ask, sswhat next?" When we and all
| our race have made our bow and stepped
| from off the stage, the great forces ofnature
will still continue their tireless work, and
from our decay build up another age. Or
is this the last? Is man the perfect type
the faultless product of those countless cycles?
Was strata after strata laid to build for his
display platform, and with his day will
nature cease her work and even elements
resolve to origins? Deeper and deeper has
grown the interest as the lecturer has devel-
oped his subject, and each OF the series
creates desire for the next.
In introducing his third lecture, last Thurs
day night, Major Hotchkiss read all extract
from recent letter of Prof. Jno. Wise, in
which he said ''we are just commencing now
in the first reader of Meteorology, and if
we stick closely to facts as nature reveals
them to our senses, we shall be able, by and
by, to make respectable science of it, and
learn little of the language that the stones
use in talking to each other, as we know
they do when they are Cabling one to the
other in their vibratory dialect, as manifest
ed in the telephone" We may not be able
to hear them, said Major Hotchkiss, but we
can read their dumb language and leara the
old, old stories they tell
The previous lecture closed with the com
mencement of the Carboniferous period.
and in resuming, for the better illustration
of the subject, Mr.. Gilbert r. Firth had
drawn on the black board bea 1tiful represent
tations OF the various forms of animal and
vegetable life that abounded in that age of
giants. The first represented an actual Sec
ton of a tree of immense dimensions. found
in the coal mines OF Nova Scotia ; the econd
was carboniferous forest of dense and lux
uriant growth, and the third, the picture of
the great kings of that day-tlle ichthyosau-
rus and pterodactyl.
1t was during the Carboniferous period
that air breathing animals first appeared in
considerable numbers and reptilian forms
predominated. It was pre-eminently the
age of immense forests. These grew in wa.
ter surcharged with carbonie acid, spread
ing their magnificent palm-like tops in an
atmosphere abundantly charged. with their
elements OF growth in perpetual summer
and under warm and forcing temperature.
The plutonic or internal heat of the earth
produced this temperature, which was uni
form during all seasons, both in water and
atmosphere; the influence OF the sun could
have had little effect through the haze of
gaseous vapor, steam and smoke. Under
such circumstances, the most favorable to
vegetable growth, the plants grew to an
enormous size. The rank and magnificent
flora OF the Carboniferous eras, springng up
under these favorable conditions, must have
been luxuriant beyond conception. The
little ground pines scarcely span lon now.
measured fifty and sixty feet then, and the
securing rushes which we fold in our hands.
were giants. The ferns, like the other coal
plants, are found in the coal itself, their
forms being preserved by impressions or
prints on the rocky strata. In the coal
shales, particularly In those which make I'm
the stratum everything the coal beds, these
impressions are often wonderfully abun.
dant, so that when the coal beds are exca-
waited, these states appear filled with a COM
plete net work OF the impressions of fern
leaves. tbs apparent that they must have
formed large portion of the mingled mass
OF vegetable matter and fine sediments
which now constitute these beds of black
shale. AS the thin mud in the course of
ages slowly became indurated, the leaves
were decomposed, and their carbon was diff
fused through the whole mass but their
forms, even to the most minute markings,
were left as perfectly impressed as though
they had been purposely taken in the finest
clay, and left behind to harden. The pre-
parations of recent plants for the herbanium
OF naturalist, could not be more beautiful
than these naturally preserved relics of the
most ancient vegetation. Through the slow
processes OF nature these dense forests we're
converted into coal.
The uncouth and gigantic forms of the
animal life, sucl as the chthyosaurus anu
pterodactyl, which were the kings of that
time, appear in the secondary age and dis.
appeared in the tertiary The animals of
the latter We're more like the present ones,
except in geographical distribution, and |
were in about the same proportion to the
rest OF creation as now. The study of fos-
sill reptiles shows the limited duration of
species, and the difference between the fos-
sill and living forms is always greater as we
60 back in time.
Although successive ages had piled the
various horizontal formations with sys.
tematic regularity, the crust of the earth |
was lot rigid, but yielding, and subject to
the movements of depression and elevation.
due to disturbance pitts equilibrium, which
in all ages have been operating, and by the
influence of which the sedmentary deposits,
were thrown more or less to the centre. As |
these gentle oscillations went on, wild sea |
rolled over the earth, force of volcanic vio-
lence came from the east, throwing the mass
into folds and making the mountains and val
leys. At this time the larger portion of our
continent was covered with water. The
vast area from the Blue Rid. 20 to the Rocky |
mountains was continuous sea, with but a |
single arch, or anticlinal range, standing
out like giant i'll the primeval ocean. This
arch extended from the Blue Ridge to the
coast range, and from it's sides was carved
the fairest land the sun shines upon,--the VAL
ley of Virginia. The mountains are formed,
with few exceptions, where peaks of pneiss