The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1885-10-23

Present ke<ults-o1oW the Oue~elon %
Time u D~s<rnis~A-
According 70 the calculations Of
prominent geologists. the stratum Of
sarth that in some places j. two miles
and half thick. constituting the car
boniierous or coal age. was deposited
twenty nine million year. ago You
will wonder how such calculation can
te made The result i arrived Al b.
find ne out kor the different Layers are
deposited. and estimating the larger
ones BY the smaller As an example
the same agencies are Al work now a.
then Deposits Ike those Of the Dover
Cliffs. England. are being formed nj
the bottom Of the ocean to-day and by
noting the ages Of time it takes to raise
: given area an inch. by mean seven Of
the fast growing coral. we can form
something Of = guess how long /, would
take for TWO and half miles q solid
covering 70 form
During this time. as the name indi-
cafes the great beds 0f coal in Penn
Sylvania and other sections were
deposited and n we sit by spark
ling c0al-iirc we ARE. after all.
watching a wool one the wood u
fwenty mine million wears ago. II YOU
doubt this. grind \ piece OF coal down
as thin a. possible and place il under =
microscope when the woody fiber
will be plainly seen
Mineral coal i merely the element
of carbon mixed with other b;tuminous
substances. In the formation II BIZ
luminous coal there WAS los Of three
four;hs Of wood and fse-sixths i'm that
Of anthracite. There wa = greater
loss Nv decomposition. and = reduction
II bulk by pressure from above and
from this il Is assumed that il took
eight feet Of leaves and twig~ that
dropped from the tres AID blew To-
geiher- packed closely. % make one
foot 81 bitum| nou- coal. and twelve
feet TO make one II anthracite.
To make = of coal thirty fert
thick. like N. ne in Wilkesbarre. tile
bed Of vegetable matter that produced
i must nave been three hundred and
sixty feet thick Imagine the time il
would take for leaves 10 drop aud
accumulate in solid mass over a great
area as high rs the tallest church-spirr.
Hence il j. that seams or LAYERS II pure
coal are rarely very thick Often
times the LAYER j. n thin \ . piece Of
paper but the average j. about eight
feet The Pittsburgh Sram- ~ the place
Of the same name. i just this thickness
and can he seen on The high shores from
the Monongahcia River. and traced into
Virginia and Ohio. over an ARA Of two
hundred and twenty five by one hun
dret miles. and even into kentucky. Ii
varies also in thickness as in the Cum
ierland basin il \ fourteen feet thick.
six :, Wheeling. i've IT Athens. o. and
on the Great kanawha from two 10
thrrc feet
Coal-bcds form much quicker under
water. where she leaves were held il
place and retained their gaseous parts
which would be lost in the atmosphere.
The common rcaf-heds Of today are
perhap< coai-beis Of the future Il
least thev resemble IN origin the old
plant-bed< Over 0ne-tenfh II Ireland
j. covered with peaf-beds. some fortv
feet deep In Massachusetts, alone.
there are over l1lup1.wn cords Of II.
Trees are often found buried in them.
and in Ireland : gigantic fossil elk i
found
You may wonder where al the car
bon came from that seems 10 D. the |
prominent ingredient in coal II i Be-
lieycd that in the coal age there was
much more carbon in the atmosphere
than n present and during this time /
Il was stored away hy the wonderful I
plants that we're 80 fitted for the pur- /
pose. This. ton. purified the air for
The hiris and higher fcrms that came
later
The curious mineral oil petroleum.
was formed similarly 20 coal hy the de-
a vegetable or animal ~
mains. either marine or terrestrial. |
buried in mud in time slowly changing
INTO oil. or some materials that prD-
luce il by di<fillation. but oil unlike
he coal. i found in the layers Of all
ICES from the lower Silurian wells Of
and Tennessee to the Terti-
Try wells II Sol rrn California
Like other <tf4xa- that Of the coal
ICE only appears At the surface AZ Ger
ain places-in fact the total number
4 square mile< Of AL the productive
'oal-iields in the United States IS only
5000. in Scotland 2.np square miles:
reland- l.Snvyn. and IN England - \.
10000 square miles Then again. II
; not always represented b. coal. Il
ontains stratified rocks a AL kinds.
omctimcs shaleS. <ani<t0nes. con
But how. You will ask.
ger all these layers placed fheres
Geology shows us that che age inst
'cfore the coal was one Of ~ubmcrcencc
that j.. most ~ the land was under
gafer: but later. there was a rising.
nd great tracts 81 swsmp-Iand ap-
cared In them grew trees and vere-
alton totally unlike those Of to-day.
he ferns even being trees and large !
mes. too The vegetation was won /,
crfully profusc- Curious fowcrIess
lants called crypiograms were com
ron SORT Of ground pine A Iyco-
odia that lives now. four or five feet :
Ugh. in this wonderful time was sixty
: seventy feet high. One Of the CON-
honest trees was the S;gilIaria. which
rev 70 : height of sixty or seventy
~ also. and then branched out with !,
'ng. narrow leaves. the trunk being !.
,vercd with curious scales They are
found in mines. and are ex-
emcly dangerous. ~ they hollow out
-romo fs1lcd 18th aau1 ~.I xx>rl - 1 "