The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-03-21

| That Major Hotchkiss' lectures are becOm-
ing more popular was evidenced by the in
creased attendance of last Thursday night.
and though the audience was composed
largely OF young people. the manifestation
of interest was none the less conspicuous,
and the uninterrupted attention he received
testified to the almost universal appreciation
of the entertainment. As rule, lecturers
on scientific subjects are apt to run to ex-
tremes. They either regard their auditors
as scholars to whom all technical terms are
familiar, and acting upon that supposition,
indulge in wild revel OF learned phraseol-
ogy, bewildering where they intend to in
| struct; or else, on the other hand, they con-
slider humanity in general as born to flourish
under dunce-cap, and believe that the most
patient and elaborate explanation of the
minutest detail is necessary to even its lin
tied comprehension. Major Hotchliss seems
to have found the middle ground between
these two, and whilst avoiding one, manages
to steer clear of the other. Science, under
his careful handling, is Invested of dat mys-
FERROUS veil with which distance seems to
envelope it, and just as from afar the noun
tain appears smooth, perpendicular AID in-
possible OF ascent, but as we approach 1t
stretches forth its rugged rocks and branches
to lift US upward, so within easy reach he
brings the great study, and the weakest is
able to discern some projection which can be
grasped and held secure. Some writer has
said that to instruct an American audience
it is necessary to amuse it; surer way to
instruct any audience is to flatter, and by
simplifying that which is difficult, induce
the hearer to believe that his own acute per-
ception, and not the speakers faculty Of Tim
parting, has enabled him to master particu-
lar details of the subject. This talent Major
Hotchkiss possesses In an eminent degree,
and the lisener goes away feeling that he
has learned something some definite
poirt lodgedin his mind.
In this the second of his series, the lecturer
took up the thread of his subject at that
period which succeeds the first, or Archa-
can age of the world, upon which he spoke
one week before. The formations of Archa-
can Time were anterior to the appearance
of life upon the earth, and from the appa-
rent absence of fossils are called ozoic rocks,
(signifying absence of life). In accordance
with this nomenclature, the formation con-
tanning the fossil remains of plants and ami
mails was the Paleozoic or ancient life. Geo.
lo2ists have established horizons or lines Of
demarcation upon which the systems OF
classffcati0ns have been bnilt. Prof. Ro-
gers, the celebrated Virginia geologist, di-
vided the formation OF Paleozoic Time into
eleven parts, comprehending the lower and
upper Silurian and Cambrian, the DevonIan,
or old Red Sandstone, and the sub Carbonif-
erous periods. Each of these formations
was sketched on the blackboard by the
lecturer, and Its explanation, accompanied
with apt illustrations and impressed by the
exhibition Of specimens pertaining to them,
made most interesting.
A contemplation OF these formations dis
misses the notion Of the sudden creation of
the earth and its inhabitants, and recognizes
creative energy extending through myriads
of ages. 1t establishes the fact that the dry
land on which we stand was simply formed
by the successive dispositions of mud, sand
or gravel made upon the bottom or border
of the ocean, and that these are marked by
the remains of those animals which lived at
that time, as similar forms now live, in the
oceanic waters and that these layers of
rock, of whatever kind, mark certain eras,
and con tain an indellible record, more or
less complete, of the conditions then exist
ing, and Of the changes which have brought
about the later and present stste Of things.
1t is the history, influence and relations of
this ancient organic world, which give us a
better knowledge of the early conditions of
the surface, the gradual progress of the va
rious forms of life, and the clear, unbroken
line from the earliest organisms to the adj
vent of man upon our planet.
The lower portions of the Paleozoic show
no evidence of terrestrial forms of life, their
vegetable remains consisting of alga and
then animals of mollusks and corals. From
the material elements distributed through
the water these animals of invertebrate life
gathered the ingredients and make the lime
stone. The formations of this period are
numbered by Prof. Rogers from to VII in
elusive. 1t was -emineEtly the age of
mollusks. coras and crustaceans, the most
important part of which last, in the earliest
times, were the trilobites which appear in
their greatest development in the Cambrian
and Siluran and die out in the Carbonifer-
Gus.
Succeeding this period, came the Devo-
MAN or old Red Sa ndstone-numbered by
Prof. Rogers, VIII and TX. In it we fluid
numerous forms OF animal and vegetable
life. We see traces Of the conditions upon
which they lived the sands of the a-beach-
, es laid bare by the ebbing tide were rippled
by the winds and trailed by the animals of
that primeval ocean. From that period, at
least, light and heat, cloud and sunshine,
rain and wind, refreshed and fertilized the
earth, which teemed with animal and vege-
table existences. The testimony of living
things Is found in the fossil imprints. the
earliest evidences of life in the remains of
plants and animals imbedded In the ancient
sea bottom or stranded upon the shore.
Through unnumbered ages, life has pre-
:. sented its varied forms without cessation
from its first appearance on the globe; each
!. succeeding epoch, each new physical condi-
ton, whether OF ocean bed or shore, of moist
!. or dry land, presenting its new and pecu-
liar forms of the animal and vegetable. In
the course of these incalculable periods
these millions upon millions Of years-the
aspect and character of existences have
changed, and there has been, If not regu
= lar progression, yet, in the main, a wonder
full advance over the earlier organisms.
Fishes, the earliest representatives of YER
tebrate life, made their appearance near thu
>. summit of the Silurian, and abound in the
upper paleQzoic. Reptiles first appeared ii
!. the carboniierous and reached their greatest
development in mesozoic time, in which
reptilean life Of immense dimensions ant
curious forms are met with. Their fossil re