Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-02-04
The Reign of Plants.

own uecp Ill Unc edtUn, nuuufeus
of feet below the surface, may be founG
strange cities, rooted over, walled in,
and pillared with what looks like Jet,
black stone. No light reaches the mar.
row streets, except here and there
where haring lamp stuck into 8
socket in the wall makes circ,c OF
brightness around it, or a tiny flame,
imprisoned in wire cage, and wor2
In the front of his cap by each of the
jewellers in this underground world,
sends out slender flame to light hin
on his way. This curious place is {
coal-mine, which has been slowly dug
out by men who toiled there day after
day and year after year, away from the
light of the sun and Gods beautiful
green earth.
want You to go back with me. il
Imagination, to the times when the coal
was making. We must go back more
years than we can even think of to dO
this. 1t was after the reign of the
fishes; the land then existing was only
low mud banks and barren rocks, where
few plants and trees were growing.
Most of the globe was covered with
water, ceaselessly beating upon the
desolate shores. A doath-like silence
hung over the dreary land and sullen
waters. No insects hum or birds song
broke the stiffness of the air. The
sounds that might have been heard, il
there had been an ear that could listen,
were sounds of destruction and death
rather than sounds of life. The heavy
muttering of the storm, the sudden
claps of thunder echoing through the
hollow air, the crash of earthquake and
volcano, and then silence aga II, marked
by the monotonoas roll of the wave s,
as the silence of night is marked by
the regular tick of Il clock.
It almost seemed as if the earth, in
spite of the heat, had not yet been re,
leased from the death-lille spell of win.
ter. But at last a new life was begin.
ming to wake. Almost as spring comes
to us eaclt year this awakening came
to the bare and desert land. Cannot
You look back upon last winter and re.
member how long it seemed how you
waited and watched for the spring sc
eagerly and impatiently that it seemed
as though it would never come? Al
last, when you had almost begun tC
despair, there came a few soft, warm
Gavs. and fine mirac'e of nature was
wrouobt The whole mir was full ot
the whispers of the coming leaves,
murmuring their gladness as they burst
from the:r dark prison houscs in The
rough boughs. and pushed their way
out into the air and sunshine.
Now that the spring had come to the
world, after millions of wears of wait,
ing, it brought wonderful and bill.
liant life. The excessive heat and mois,
ture together made of the whole land
one great greenhouse. The plants
grew to gigantic size. The swampy
ground brought forth huge reeds that
reared themselves forty or fifty feet
high, and were clothed with masses OF
feathery leaves. Ferns shot up tail
trunks crowned with foliage like palms.
Singular trees, unlike any living now
upon earth, whose trunks looked IKE
carved columns OF wood, hiled the
forest, and must nave gwen 1t a most
peculiar look' Inc marking ON the
stems was found to be sears left by
leaves Whlch hao 1atien OH; Dut the
plants that were most common ana
grew most freely were Terms, TIL tree
and creeping Terms. lhese plants were
all found IN the sWamps; at the same
time on the rocky lahds lew ever
greens had sprung which were some,
times carried down IN the 1reShets ana
packed among the living plants OF the
swamps'
1t seems wonderful leap to make
from such dense living forest rs this
to seam of solid coal lying between
layers of stone hundreds of feet under,
ground, and so it would be if we tried
to take it in one Jump. But we are
able to trace the change step by ste,
from wood to coal almost as perfectly
as we can the wood that is stacked, and
covered in from tine air, and slowly
heated till it turns into charcoal, in the
charcoal burners pits,
DO Won remember onvtbiro obout the
neat bops-bow the leaves and stems OF
nIants and even stnmns and lons oi
wood sunk in the swampv waters. in.
stead of tnrnino TO dust and blowino
away. as tbev wou!d have done in the
air were packed down and GRADUALLY
changed into n black. pasty mass. and
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