The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-07-10
Opcn-Air Science.


A gay band Of wanderers trudged
over the hills and an oss tho valves Of
Montgomry county recently, much to
the wondermens of the natives and the
advancement Of science. Some of the
invaders were clad in sacks and trousers,
some III jackets and knickerbockers,
some in bright-colored Jerseys and
frocks, but all carried hammers and
each had leather bag slung jauntily
over one shoulder. There were little
lads scarcely forty inches high, who
chatted about triassic and jurassio,
sllusan and Devinian, as they might be
expected to do Of balls, bicycles and
hoops. There were lanies who lugged
hugh -bags, Of, Gpnglomerate shale and
eda sPess speoI eoie Of faa@ thread shfy iy
town. There were pretty girls who
thumped away at granite and limestone
ke-Venerable macadamiZers, and there
were grave, professors who skipped up
hllly roads and threaded forest paths
like mountain goats. 1t was the sixth
expedition of Professor Lewis geoloei-
cal class under command of the profes.
sor and attended by reporter.
The May air was like May wine as
the party left the train at Rubicum
Station. 1t was tlavared with lilac and
honeysucklc, wild thyme and mint.
There were green hedge rows all about
leading up the drives to pretty villas.
There were peach -blow-and-a -apple-blos-
som clouds, and there were the dain-
tlest contrast of color imaginable, as
the bright dresses of the ladies in the
party and the gay ribbons of the
youngsters hats moved through the
green fields and Towering orcoarls. At
Rubicm the expedition picked up
some specimens of the oldest fossil
known TO Pennsylvania, the scolietus
llneans-naught but a faint thread in Il
bit o[ limestone rock now, but the first
proGCnitor in direct line of all the way
inS forests and nodning grasses. TROOP.
ing along the turnpike, by Willow
Grove, the caravin turned into the
waods past 4 bare and grim old school
house and over quaint and picturesque
crOss-rOad to '"The Rocks" Here.
with the soft sough of the south wind
IN the branches over head, within sight
OF the ricn green of the meadows and
the prosperous quiet of the neat farm
houses, the class endeavorcd, while Pro-
fcsSor Lewis lectured, to throw them
selves back in imagination some mil
lions Of years to the time when the SPOT
they stood upon was the eastern shore
OF the first of all seas, the CamDrian.
Here, then, was a deatlneSs, compared
with which the Sahara would be a gard
en-; brackiShneSS that would make the
waters of the Dead Sea sweet as a ruiz
ming brook-only sand and gravel and
water from '"The Rocks" to The Rocky
Mountains.
The thought was oveYpowering. The
expedition rought rricf in it's lunch
baskets. Retracing its steps the class
stopped to drink at q whitewaslled
farm house, which smcllcd strongly of
dOughnuts.
water from the Cambrian sea-
said Professor Hines, of Girard College,
as the bucket came dripping out of
eighty feet Of GOODNESS. The Times
man found forms Of life, However, in
his glass later even in generation than
the carboniferous era. Turning off the
cross-road into the Davisvile Highway
the class caught sight of an innocent
looking stone fence and charged it en-
maSse, the light infantry leading in
gallant style. The stone clanged back
to the hammers like the shield of Font
dc Bnuf to the challenging point Of
Iyanhoe.
"Gneiss," said a brcathlcss youngs-
ter.
"Cyanitc," rcjoincd Professor Lewis,
correcting Inn.
a stones throw down the road the
road the class ran into a bed of conglo-
merate, Which was the shore OF another
sea, the Triassic, a couple of thousand
centuries less antique than the Cam
brian. The shore is to-day the bank of
Morgan's creek and mill pond, into
which few small boys did their best to
tumble. Morgan's mill yard once wav-
ed with pince and palms, the pupils
learned. Strange fish swan where now
the creek is, and huge reptiles summed
themselves where now Il barefooted boy
rested himself on tee fence. The Trias-
sic sea was thirty miles wide and stretch
ed from the Hudson to Uarpcr's Ferry
Under fine breeze the class turned
argonauts ann sailed across the Triassic
sca-that is to say, they turned to The
right and walked up hill into farm
yard, where cropped out ledge Of de-
composing sand stone, the ancient bot
tom Of this inland ocean.
Further up the hill and into the
kitchen garden Of the farm house the
professor led his band. There, however,
the marauders met their first check in
tho person of an ancient virago,
who stood with arms akimbo at thcc
back of her dwelling and charged the
class with intended burglary and actual
trespass.
The invading hosts fled in disorder
hn hi no
and ambuanccs having been sent to the
front under strong guard no halt was
made until the train was boarded.
New Guinea.