The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-03-28

the changes which took plaee~on the
earth's surface through millions OF years
anterior TO the advent of imam. The
fossils of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic
ages are about all extinct. 1t is only
when we come to the tertiary or Neozoic
age that we meet with living forms.
What we call our terra tirma
is really a type of Instability, for
under the constantly acting process of
contraction, the crust of the earth is
constantly being moved and folded, and
that somewhat irregularly, so that in
all ages some portion of the land has
been going up, other portions down,
and wherever the surface passed below
the sea level, the water would flow. in
and deposit upon it one or another of
the kinds Of sediment which we find in
the series Of rocks. Sediments are still
forming from the shells and skeletons
of animals which inhabit the sea, and
which, in death, sink to the bottom. In
each age,there has been@t subsistence of
the land, which has permitted the sea to
flow in and deposit over the submerged
surface sediments which contain, in
greater OF. less numbers, tbs, remains of
the animals and plants then living. This
rock history is incomplete because pot
all the forms of life which existed would
be preserved, partly because many were
perishable, and chiefly those that inhab-
tied seas or. drifted into them would
leave any relics behind them. This his
tory, though more complete than would
at first be deemed possible, is confess
edly defective, and, I must. say. has been
but partially read. Great areas of the
worlds surface have yet been unstudied
by geologists While the subject is to
be greatly sIlqmipated bysh1Ma discov-
cry, there is very little probability that
the general conclusions OF paleontology
will experience any important nodifica-
ton. -
Mammals began their existence, so
far as we know, in the Trias, but
throughout the Mesozoic ages held an
altogether subordinate and insignificant
position. The reptiles occupied the sea,
the. field and the air, for they were
swimmers and walkers and flyers; the
sea reptiles resembling the whales, as
we know them, and The sea serpents, as
we imagine them to exist at present.
The first bird, so far as yet known, was
the archeopteryx, found in the itho-
graphic states of Solenhofen, Bavaria.
Part reptile and part bird in anatomical
structure, it was apparently clothed with
feathers, but the wings were short and
composed of pllmes arranged radiately,
as in fan; while the tail, a prolonga-
ton of the vertebral column, had the
shape of an oar-blade. 1t is supposed
it had teeth. The flying dragon, or
Pterodactyls, of the Jurassic and Gre
taceous periods, had great wings, like a
bats in structure, and measured as
much as twenty-five feet from tip to tip
of their wings. In the Tertiary period,
the vegetation was apparently more
luxuriant and beautiful than that of the
present day, for the grandest and most
interesting Of our living forest trees, the
great Sequoias of California, the red
wood and the mammoth trees, our tulip
trees, magnolias, sycamores and cy-
presses are the lingering remnants of
the magnificent forests which covered
our continent even to the Arctic Sea-
The Tertiary has been well named the
age OF mammals. Brute force then
ruled the world; for man, its present
master, had not yet appeared ON the
stage. During the ice period, the eli
mate of Greenland was brought as far
south as New York, and broken sheets
of ice held all nature in the embrace of
death for thousands of years. Whole
races of animals and plants persisted,
but those forms that were driven far
south survived, and ultimately moved
northward with the ameliorationgof the
climate, and were attended by a new
element in the history of the world,
primitive man.
We see that the geological record, as
far as it goes, is more authentic and
credible than any uninspired history,
since it contains no personal equation,
is the product of no prejudice, passion,
or partial view, which qplo1tai human
histories, but is authentic and necessari-
~ true; that the earlier chapters of this
history, those which contain the records
of the beginning Of life, ARE Tor the most
part obliterated and illegible; that there
are many gaps in the. narrative which
doubtless will be, but up to the present
time have not been, filled; and thus that
the record consists of series of chap
tiers, more or less disconnected. The
evidence is conclusive that thesearliest
fauna and flora of which we have any
knowledge consistedb fewerselemenas.
and these of simpler structure, than in
any succeeding age. Also that there
has been constant and progressive in
crease in the variety of animals and
plants, and in the completely of their
structure. This progress of life is so
evident and general that we can not re-
sist the conclusion that it lis the express