The Southern herald., 1885-11-21

Geolsrv shoEs Is that tie age iuss
ba1re ths oosl Has oas e suhmsEgsnes
-thaf IS. uaost of the laRd Was under
waer, but later. thers vas rising
ana great tracts of sEamP-land ap-
peaEad IN thsn grsW tEees and vese-
tslion totally unliks thoss e today,
the ferns even being trees and large
ones too The vegetation Was Won
derfuIly profuse. Curious h0Werless
plants called eryPtograms were CON-
moa-a sort Of ground pine A Lyoo-
podia that lives nov. four or I've feet
high. in this wonderful time was sixty
or seventy feet high One Of the com
monest trees was the Sigillsria, which
grew to a height Of sixty or seventy
feet also. and then hranehed out with
long, narrow leaves. the trunk being
covered with curious scales They are
frequently found in mines. and are ex-
tremely dangerous, as they hollow out
become filled with sand and rock. and
when broken Of below. shoot down
upon the miners Their roots are often
found spreading through the coal in
every direction.
The LepiOdendrOns were another
form. and q tree of this genus was
found in a new castle mine forty feet
high and thirteen feet in diameter. The
branches were as perfect as possible
and ab0At twenty in number With al
this luxuriant foliage there were few,
if any, flowers. the great SCARED trees
and monster ferns forming the mOsi
conspicuous objects out of the thres
hundred and fifty coal plants that We
know Of And with all this, there
were no birds; they had not yet come.
The only living animals were marsh.
loving insects, scorpions, crabs
worms, a few TrilObites. (or three
legged erabs), the curious Crinoids,
and a few reptiles; so that probably
the only sound heard was the eroaking
from the low reptiles that lived in tn,
swamps.
A curious reptile called the Dendrer.
peton has been found eoiled up in the
trunk of a great fossil Sigillaria il
Nova Scotia. Ii had a curious seulpt
ured head, was covered with scales
and related to the great frog-like
Labarynthodoht that was as large a,
an elephant
In the coal measure near Westmore
land, Pa, singular footprints are often
found, and one was traced for a long
distance in a layer one hundred feet be.
low the Pittsburgh coal The hind feet
were iive-toed. and the fore feet four
toed. The distance between the tracks
was about eight inches, showing it to
have been large animal. 1t was ba.
trachian, so related to Che frogs and
toads and called the Thenaropus.
In the Nova Scotia coal measure 9
| gigantic lizard, or snake-like creature,
has been found, called the Eosarus,
that was the sea-serpent of the ancient
sea.
Among the curious animals Of tn,
time were beautiful cup-shaped corals,
shells, the Productus, Spirifer and Or
this, and land-snail Pupa. Numbers
of coiled shells contained animals re
lated to the cuttle- fishes, and many
other forms equally interesting.
Such we're some of the inhabitanti
and the general appearance of the worlc
in this by-gohe age-a time SO remot,
that we can form no conception of it
duration. But even then nature, il
obedience to the great governing mind
was storing up her treasures for th'
benefit of man, who seems the culmina
tion Of Divine evolutionary advance
ment. Prof C. 2. Holder, IN Gollel
Days