The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-07-07
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

is curiosity for psychologists. SAYS the
Athens lGa.) Banner of the 18th nit.
esterday we were assured by Messrs.
Autry q Edwards, well-borers, that on
the day before, while boring a well on
the farm of Mr. Sherwood Wise. some
four or five miles from Athens. and inst
beyond Middle Oconee River, thew took
out from the middle of as hard a blue
granite rock as they had ever encountered.
tiorty-six feet under ground, a complete
IRON wedge, such as is generally used in
splitting rails of wood. The iron wedge
is In the possession of the gentlemen who
took 1T from the rock, and lis apparently
but little worn. This certainly is a most
remarkable incident, and one well calcu-
lated to puzzle our scientists, biologists,
and mineralogists. This extraction of a
solid iron wedge, in a state of perfect
keeping, from hard blue granite rock
forty six feet under the ground is truly
the wonder of the age. It has attracted
a good deal of curiosity and comment. :"
That is much harder than a nut
EDS.
The English journals give the fol-
Mallet, f. r. S., at the first meetinS Of
the present session of the Geological So
ciety, London: According to the latest
hypothesis as to the quantity of water on
the globe, its pressure if evenly distrib-
uted would be equal to barometric pres
sure of 2O4,7 atmospheres. Accordingly,
water, when first it began to condense on
the surface of the globe, would condense
at a much higher temperature than the
present boiling point, under ordinary cir
cumstances. The first drops of water
formed on the cooling surface of the globe
may not impossibly have been at the tenn
perature of molten IRON. AS the water
was precipitated, condensation of. the re-
naming vapor took place at lower tenn
perature. The primordial atmosphere
would be more obiate and less penetrable
by solar heat than the present atnos-
phere, and the difference of temperature
between polar and equatorial regions
would be greater, so that in the later ge-
ologic times ice may have formed in the
one while the other was too hot for ami
NAL or vegetable life. Thus, formerly
the ocean would be much more power
tul dlslntegrant and solvent of rocks
mineral changes would be more rapid,
and meteoric agencies would produce
greater effects in given time.
-PREHIsToRIC JADE.-In the course
OF some excavations now going on in the
bed of the Rhone, near Geneva. many in
teresting objects, assigned by archaolo-
gists to the age of polished stone, have
been brought to light, the most curious
OF which is scraper Of jade, highly fin
ished, and in a condition as perfect as
when 1T left the hands of the workman.
The question arises, the Times cores
pondent states, and is being warmly dis
cussed by the learned in lacustrine lore.
how this instrument, made of material
winch exists IN natural state only in
Asia, can have found its way into the
Rhone gravel at Geneva. Was Jade ever
an article of trade between the West and
the East in prehistoric times, or is this
scraper solitary specimen brought by
Aryan wanderers from the cradle of their
race on the Hindoo Koosh? AS vet no
satisfactory solution of'the problem has
been suggested Nature.
1t is not "a solitary specimen" MANY
such have been found in the lake-dwell-
ings. Several have been found in the
Pal@ohthio caves. They go to prove I'M
mistakably that the first settlers in Eu.
rope came from Asia. In other words
the cave-dwellers and lake-dwellers in
Europe were emigrants from Asia, and
are no older than the Babylonians and
Chinese.-EDs
1t is almost confusing to hear of a
magazine being started in Rome to be
printed in the English language, and to
be devoted to science, politics, literature
and other subjects, some of them sup
posed to be peculiarly out of place SO
near the Vatican Itsuggeste the energy
Of the life that speaks through the Eng
lish tongue, and also the spread of that
form of speech over the earth. 1t sup-
gests, also, how, as Professionalism and
evangelical religion gain foothold, they
introduce these signs of life and nurture.
1t may be long time before the dark
ness that broods over Italy will disappear.
but 1t will be lifted after a while, and
this magazine is one of the signs of that
coming day, as it is also one Of the means
OF bringing it about-Pesbyajan.
-PRoFEssoR Blake ON THE MooDy
WORK IN SCOTLAND-At one of the late