The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-04-04
VIRGINIA.

VIRGINIA.
MAJOR HOTCHKISS' FOURTH LECTURE,
Last Thursday night Major Hotchkiss de-
livered, in the Y. M. G. A. Room, the fourth
of his series Of lectures on the Geology ard
Geography Of Virginia, and. like all of its
predecessors, it elected the most profound
attention. Indeed,it was regarded by many
as the most interesting and instructive yet
delivered. as it briefly reviewed, in general
terms, the ground passed over on previous
occasions, and served to revive and impress
much that, perhaps, might otherwise have
passed from memory. No one who has at
tended these lectures can fail to have de-
rived great benefit and an amount of the
most valuable information, for apart from
the immediate effect of the lectures them
selves, they have created desire for a deep
er inquiry into the world of old,-a more ex-
tended research into the evidences Of pre-
historic time.
Coincident with the beginning, rise and
progress OF geology, the lecturer has des-
cribed the various forms Of life which
abounded at the different periods. The con-
ditlon of that life, the history of its appear
ance, development and disappearance, and
the evidences ofits existence which remain to
the present day, and how those evidences
have been preserved, have constituted
story OF absorbing interest, which must
of x,lo TO
those who heard it, for years to come. The
knowledge of those ancient periods enables
US to more fully understand the age we live
in, TO trace causes to effects, and to CON-
prehend the capabilities Of the earth we in
habit. Other countries have long recognized
the Importance of this information, and in
conformity with its teaching, have regulated
the very crops of the fields, and If we would
realize the vast inheritance which nature
has bequea:hed US, it must be by the aid of
the rules she has laid down for our guidance.
She has spread the book before US, said the
lecturer, and we must search for its riches,
by the record she has left, we can find
the bearing and unearth the boarded treas
ures which lie buried in earth's bosom. The
one characteristic feature in the rapid prog
ress of geology, during these latter years,
has been the growing recognition Of its i'm
portance, and the increased attention and
study given to it. Men have found that so
much of the practical in life is dependent
upon it, that they have studied it as guide
to direct their measures in the most COM
mon-place affairs of every day life, and
have found in this study the key to the
capabilities of earth's surface. Zoology and
botany have also partaken of this influence.
Constant discoveries have created new de-
mands upon the knowledge and acumen of
the comparative zoologlst and botanist. The
imperfect, fragmentary, or obscure condi-
ton of fossil remains has demanded the
closest scrutiny of those external parts and
OF their most intimate structure, and it is to
the reaction of this study of fossil organisms
upon the methods of study in the living
fauna and flora that we are indebted for
better knowledge of structure, aud the fill
ing up of gaps in our series; thus giving
truer arrangement and classification of ex-
isting forms by intercalating the fossil Or
ganisms in their proper relations.
In the present action of natural causes
we see ana.ogies for the history OF fossils
Embedded in the strata of the globe. Streams
bear along gravel, sand, or silt, and deposit
them in the quiet waters, the heavier ma
terials first and underneath. the lighter
above and more widely diffused, forming
superimposed beds, all differing more or less
in composition. A long continuation of this
action may produce beds of great thickness,
parallel in qualification, and in the course
of their slow formation shells may gather
and plants may grow, and gradually become
buried by the slow accession of drifting ma
terial. The first condition of these deposits
is horizontal; subsequent disturbing forces
may break or disarrange them, and the
gradual rising or sinking of certain poi lions
Of coast-lne or ocean bottom, as we'll as the
resulting effect of volcanic violence, has left
them in the mountains and valleys as we
find them.
Many Of these fossil organisms were liv-
ing in the condition, association and arrange
ment, in which we now discover their re-
mains. Others have been transported, bro
ken and mingled with those of the undis-
turbed beds. In some instances myriads of
individuals of various forms have lived and
died upon the sea bed, and have remained
long undisturbed and not covered by sedi-
ments, since we find them sometimes sup
porting and enveloped by other organisms,
as for instance the coral. The physical ma
ture and condition of the older metamorphic
strata, in which we have no remains of ami.
mails (ether they were not then existing, or
having been obliterated by physical and
chemical changes), prove the condition of
sea and land to have been at that time not
unlike the present. The great extent of
limestone formations, the tireless work of
those animals of invertebrate life. shows
what countless millions of inhabitants at
those periods swarmed upon the earth. AS
age piled up on age, these were succeeded by
other forms, the fossils of which afforded
food first for speculation, and then as the
foundation of one of the most fascinating of
the sciences. The relation of these fosslifer-
Gus beds one to the other has led to the
recognition Of geological periods and these
periods are verified over wide areas of coun-
try, continuously or interruptedly, even to
the extent of two hem ispheres. 1t is from
the occurrence of certain peculiar for ms, or
an assemblage of them in these strata, that
| the periods of geological age can be deter
| mined. A remarkable feature which strikes
the observer is the great number of types
which have appeared in a limited geological
period. Trilobites, for example, lived in
epochs of limited range also the great rep
tiles, the pterodaetyls, and certain forms of
fishes, as we'll as some of the lower organ
isms. Many Of these are so peculiar that
their appearance or disappearance is at once
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