The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1880-02-05

chalky cliffs attain perpendicular al
titude of one thousand feet, ant
stretching along the horizon of th'
observer coming in from the ocean
side, they appear as low white clout
in the distance, from which the islanC
in the earlier times received the nam,
of Albion, poetic name signifyine
whiteness, yet retaining its sweetness
Of sound in the rich literature of oul
mother tongue.
"a piece of chalk" has become 6
proverbial expression for indefinite
magnitude, and, to the unaided eye
appears simply as an irregular frag.
ment of soft, loose, easily waste,
stone; but properly prepared and sui
jected to microscopic examination, tha
''piece of chalk" tells a most wonder
full story It is found to be composed
of very minute granules as a sustain
ing fabric, but imbedded in which are
innumerable bodies of various sizes
averaging, however, about the one
hundredth part of an inch in dame
ter, having a well-defned shape and
structure. A cubic inch Of some spec
linens of chalk may contain hundreds
of thousands Of these bodies compact
ed together with countless millions of
these granules, and later scientific re-
search has developed the fact that
these granules are produced by indie
pendent organisms of a size so small
that seven thousand of them, placed
in line, with their longer diameters
in contact, would mt exceed an inch
in length. The schoolmaster may,
from the data above given, that is to
say the bottom of an ancient ocean
equal in in extent to modern Europe,
being deposit of chalk averaging in
thickness possibly six hundred feet,
with say five thousand organisms to
the lineal inch.approximate the count
less myriads of organisms requisite to
make up the entire deposit, and as to
time we may make relative guess.
| have seen a statement arrived at
by a system of deductive proof that
it required in those ancient days
at the bottom Of that venerable sea, a
year and a half to deposit a layer of
chalk one inch thick. Hence to de-
posit one thousand feet would require
eighteen thousand years.
As a species of indirect evidence
touching the lapse of time, it may be
remarked that all through the chalk
formations exist the fossiliforous re-
mains Of probably every type Of ma
rine life. The mighty Saurians of the
primal sea, whose natural span Of life
extends through many years, have
lived and died, their bones left repos-
ing upon the chalk at the time found
and now covered with a blanket whose
thickness measured by the hundred
feet, whose warp is the carbonate of
lime and whose woof is the skeletons
of myriads of animalcule technically
termed Globigerina, woven into the
great chalk fabric by the facile hand
Of nature. After the great ocean, in
obedience to the laws of gravity, had
yielded to the upheaval of it's chalky
bottom, still some ages must necessa-
rily have been passed before the gla-
cier period set in, for imposed upon
the chalk, and beneath the bolder clay,
is comparatively insignificant layer
comprised largely of vegetable matter.
But hear the wonderful story written
in that deposition. Here are the
stumps Of trees standing as they grew,
fir trees with their cones and hazel
bushes with their nuts, and there
stand the stools of ash and yew trees,
beeches aud alders, all upon the earthly
soil deposited atop of the chalk for
nation and consequently long centu-
ries after it's upheaval, for the boles Of
many of these trees are from two to
three feet in diameter And here amid
the remains of this ancient forest and
upon the fortieth parallel of north
latitude, are found the remains of ele-
plants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses,
and others Of the great wild beasts
whose names to-day are found only in
the torrid zone beneath a burning
sun.
And now the earth populated
throughout its terrestrial extent by
massive animals, ruminants as well as
fesh-eating; the air inhabited by birds
of every plumage; the sea crowded
with every type of aquatic life; state
ly forests nodding to breezes bearing
only the stimulating energies of an
austral origin, awaits its change and a
great change came. The blight of a
polar winter, whose length defes con-
lecture, spread it's desolating influence
even to the spot whereon we now
stand, and bird and beast, forest and
flower, yield themselves to his icy en-
brace, and the Northern hemisphere
shuddering at the cold chill, became
one vast charnel-house of winter hor-
rors, whose duration no man knows
But finally spring broke upon the
odden, frozen winter, and in the pro-
gress of the succeeding thaw the rec
ords we are consulting disclose to Us
for the first time the existence Of mar
"a new type Of being-no mere de-
velopment from an ape or a gorilla
but race unlike any pre-existent IL
form of life; man, rude, savage anC
Informed, but distinctively of his OWL
kind-so different from any previous
form of life that no comparative anat
omest has thought to refer him to al
origin common to any other animal
His first fossil remains are the bon,
structures of human beings. His frs
crude tools are the handicraft of tn
lowest order of savages, it Is true, bu
still bearing the unmistakable evi
dences of a skill not possessed by an.
other than human beings.
All over Europe the evidence of al
early race of barbarians is found, bu
especially in the neighborhood of tn
Seine and the Rhine. Here in tn
: rocky grottoes upon the highest hill
tops, side by side with the bones of tn
, auroch, the reindeer, the walrus, an
rnnnn1 OF hnr animals whose natiua cl