The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-11-17
GENERAL SECULAR NEWS
Domestic.

The officers of the Richmond & Allie
ghany Railroad are in earnest in pushing the
wcrlI g CONF loti6h WITH the utmost vigor and
energy. Not day, hour, or minute is wasted,
and the work moves forward with a systematic
rapidity that indicates an experienced manage
ment. During the next hundred days, we are
assured by the officers $50 miles of track will
be extraordinarily more than half the dis
lance. On the east end of the line the road has
been opened as far as Gainesville, As miles, and
by the 18th of November trains viii be running
up to Columbia, Sc miles west of Richmond
On the western end the work is advancing with
equal speed, though the work is much heavier
Arrangements have been completed for putting
regular trains on the western end in a few DAYS,
and will certainly be running between William.
son and Buchanan by the first of January.-AHc-
ghdny Tribune.
VIRGINIA FURNACEs.-There are
now six furnaces in operation along the line of
the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, west of Staun-
ton; Buffalo Gap Furnace at Ferrol, making Is
tons per day; the Lucy Selma Furnace at Long
dale making about 80 tons per day. Another
furnace at this point in process Of construction
The CALI Furnace, near williamson making Is
tons per day; Lowmoor, in Allegheny, making
20 tons per day, to be soon increased to 100 tons
The Quinnimont Furnace West Va, producing
about 30 tons per day.
These six furnaces, now in blast, all using
coke made from the New River or Lower Meas
ure Goals, are making about $50 tons day, and
by the time this reaches our readers their pro-
duct Will probably be near 200 tons daily. or
over 10000 tons a year. This is but small
beginning of the manufacture of iron in this
most highly favored field for that industry.
Other new furnaces are all ready projected and
the old ones are to be renewed and put in opera,
tion.- Valley Virginian.
1t is noted by the Poetic with great
regret that President Hayes and his travelling
party entered Tucson in Arizona at noon on the
Sabbath day, were taken into carriages and
driven through the city, had public reception,
made speeches, bands of music played, the crowd
cheered, and at 80 P M. left for New Mexico.
and regrets it the more that this old Mexican
town was precisely the place where stand for
the Sabbath by the Chief Magistrate of the ma
ton would have been marked and influential.
The slate-writing manifestation" of
the Splrtualists has troubled good many others
oesides Mr.. Joseph Cook. How the writing could
be accomplished when the states were securely
tied together, with pencil between them, was
hard to guess. But we see that Mr.. James
Sargent of Rochester, has been watching the
sceances of DR.. Slade and others, and he declares
that whenever the states are so protected as to
make trickery impossible it is found that the
g conditions are unfavorable" He offers q re-
communication written inside the states when
they are sealed, as well as tied.-Independent
The wheat crop of California, the
present year, is estimated by various local au
thorites to be from $4,000, 900 to 55,OOOOOO
bushels; This is the largest yield ever known
on the Pacific coast.
The Chinese are leaving California
for China in large numbers The exodus is re- |
garded as the beginning of a general hegira of |
Mongollans from America The movements is |
attributed In part to the beginning of extensive |
public works in China, and in part to the un
friendly attitude of the American people
Foreign
Prof. Ramsay, in his presidential aG
dress before the British Association for the Adj
vancement of Science, argued that the uniform
ltarlan doctrines of Lyell could be carried out
more m fully than is generally supposed. From
the Tune OF the Laurentian down to the pres
ent day all the physical events in the history of
the earth have varied neither in kind nor in
intensity from those of which we now have
experience. 1t was assumed that the marine
deposits did not vary, and particular pains were
taken to show the recurrence of certain non
marine phenomena in the several periods. as
metamorPhlsm, volcanic eruptions, elevation |
OF mountains, existence Of salt and fresh-water
lakes, and glacial phenomena The same
number OF Nature which publishes the entire
address describes more fully the phenomena
adduced by Archibald Geikie illustrative of
glaciers In pre-Canbrian times. In the north |
west OF Scotland, along the seaboard of Ross
anu CUMBERLAND counties, occur numerous roches |
"outonnees upon the surface of the Laurentian
gnelss The adjoining Cambrian and Silurian
sandstones exhibit similar phenomena, imper- !
tectly though better situated for the DISPLAY, in
case the embossment had been effected in post
tertiary times. At length Geikie discovered |
that this embossed surface nnderlay the Cambrian
T0cks' the latter being composed Of a breccia and
Che fragments often occupying the forced vertical
position characteristic of till Hills of this
Dreccla rest upon the gneiss- domes so as perfect
~ 70 resemble modern moraines No strated .
powders, however, could be found; perhaps
because the compactness of the breccia allowed
opportunity to separate the fragments onlv with
great difficulty. Professor Geikie, who is az
familiar with glacial phenomena as any British
geologlst, believes that these features indicate
the existence ola glacier between the Laurentiap
ana Cambrlan periods. 1.-THE facts are correctly
described, the conclusion is legitimate Hence
Ramsay position, that the world has exhibited
the same causes at work that now exist ever
since the Laurentlan period, would be sustained
Independent.
-IHE EARTHQUAKE IN Austria
Fresh shocks of earthquake occurred at Apran
Croatia, recently, and many houses fell, causing
a most fearful panic. The session Of the Diet Is
suspended on account Of the danger. Tho losses
by the earthquake on Tuesday are estimated at
3,OOOOOO Horins, without reckoning the damage