Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1880-10-09
Says a popular writer


Reverting to the mines of our ro-
gion-the coal produced was once
vegetable fbre-part of the vast pine
forests of the carboniferous era--before
that, sunlight shining down upon
world uninhabited by man. From
light bituminous came; to light it
returns.
If, then, darkness is material, is it
also, as light, force ? Negatively
SO, perhaps. At least the water"
which, in the Light
failing day by day,
Wears the hardest rock away
In the profound gloom of these Cav
erns lie the carrier of deposits in solu-
ton which add slow accretions upward
and downward to the stature of stall
agmite and stalactite. In the un-
breaking stiffness of perpetual mid
night they have grown through un-
peopled ages and ages of people until
they have become in many instances
towers of antiquity which ante-date
the most venerable statue, obelifk or
pyramid, of Egypt.
To the sincere student there are
subjects for centemplative examina-
tion here. Older than Nineveh, Her
culaeneum, Athens, or Rome, whose
histories are dimly spelled, not read,
it is in some sense easier to overstep
the bridgeless CULTS which mark the
rise and fall of lettered and unlettered
races, and decipher The weiid fossil
ography of the hoary hills. Fallen
towers, sunken palaces, decaying
monuments. and crumbling pyramids
are, at best, the pretentious memen-
toes of human waste, human want and
human aimlessness. Nature discloses
no such principle. The law of recu-
peration, stronger than decay, gives
each little thing in these Caverns,
even the conglomerate pebble, its own
exquisite finish. No lavish expendi-
ture, overload, or concealment de-
grades its works. There are no lum-
Der rooms, cobwebs, crudities, abor-
tions, vulgarities no tinsel, falsity
stage effects, or child's play. This is
factory of active, imperceptible Gre
ations-not trumpery store-where
elemental skill and care build monu-
mental testimonials to the genius oi
the Universal Architect.
Standing somewhere between the
beginning and end Of time, the think
er may descry through the mists ol
the ages far-of period when tie
mountains and hills rolled as waves
and ripples over the sea of liquid
earth and boiling granite. Look at
"Cave Hill" from the cast what is ii
but the upper hemisphere of bubble
from the fire which still roars around
the heart of the globe In the con.
vulsions which attended the laying
and cooling Of the stratum of dust fol
mans creation and sustenance, how
rational the conclusion which attrib,
utes this urheaval and rupture o.
rock to some wandering, mutinou'
volcanic force which, finding here
weak spot in the hardening cruat
broke through. Look inside. How
the split boulders, severed strata, ir'
regular fssures-perpendicular and
hcrizontal-"Pluto's Chasm" ant
"El6ns' Ramble e"-mutely tell of The
terrific energy of some eliminating
spssm of heated expansion.
1t may be that, after all, this emf
nence is but type of a frequent occa
sion in one of Prof. Huxley's indetel
inmate eons; and its interior, thu
praise of thousands, is mayhsp thu
representative of only "an incident
in the tardy processes of creation
Yet it may have marked the termina
tion of period, perhaps the glacial
The geologist of the future, however
will trace infallibly its origin, just a
the astronomer already dates siderea
event back and forth through stella
revolutions, and discovers in tn,
comets cleaning train the flourish of
pen that signatures the close of
ornamental epoch.
At all events, the "Caverns" inter
est everyone. Besides the appea
they make to these who enjoy the SO
ber study of Nature, they are full o
entertaining features for the lovers o
the novel and impressive. To all sucl
it mutely puts its dark, stony riddle
"
! SCHOOL TAX.-The State Comp
trollar on fba lot inot diot hpto,