Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-01


| in the Globigerina and Pteropod ooze-
the chalky precipitation from the tiny
populations which have spent their lives
| in sunlight near the surface-ooze the
accumulation of million years-the con-
| tinuation of the chalk cliffs OF England i,
! once an abysmal sea bottom like this.
/ But in the profoundest depths the rock
has changed to a reddish clay, and this
remarkable product IS worldwide
in its distribution. Here, too, de-
scends the dust blown from the
throats of volcanoes, and floated by the
trade-winds around half the circumfer-
enee of the globe. Here is the dust from
Krakatos, after floating years in the
upper air, and painting rudy glow in
q hundred sunset skies. And here falls
the meteoric dust-the ashes OF burnt
out meteors that flew swiftly for q thoas-
and years through the lnterplanetafy
spaces-dust which flashed upon tie
vision of men who founded the early e 5E
pires-mingled with cosmio dust HeFfy
arrived from its slow journey dawn
through the dark and silent and m6e6n-
less depths OF water.
We stand and gaze out into the blae,1-
ness and chill which rest againstfus like
bodies imbeded in a wall of Masonry.
Days may pass, months and years. an6
not sound comes out of the solitude
which imprisons us: not CLEAN reminds
US that nature is not dead. We stand
century and nothing stirs-nothing in
those voiceless plains of death, though
above us sweep the still, majestic cur
rents which bring frost from the poles
This mud is the dust of centuries, which
has been gathering since the ocean de-,
soapdad IN tak a .10aaaaaior 0f IA uafoSt
rious bed, shutting three-flfths of the
world IS surface from the observation of
man. Mingled with the clay are the
relics of larger creatures which
have lived in the sea where the
sunlight cheers Its populatIons-teeth
of sharks, ear-bones of whales-not the
accumulations of yesterday or Of a CEN
fury. They are the relics of creatures
whose race has died out-Tertiary
whales, the representatives Of past cycles,
of geologic history. Nothing changes
here. Cold and darknessf xeyent decay.
Here by she side of .tss #tRpks of the
last winter are ths hard paeas of the
creatures which dyslt somewfsre in the
cages before MANI -.
;Ss,T. tie AoEIns
dead the rekIHg Is still ffhaDited. =
Here ara cfnoidE- pal@ozoic crinoids-
which naTef cone down through all the
ages of .g6oloefc history, lying here,
sleeping here Nike inanimate organisms
through sthef centuries. chilled into
changelssspess like mammoth carcasses
encassd IL zoe, still dreaming OF the
middle ages of the world. Here are
grotesque artlculates, perpetuated por-
traits of the quaint ancestors OF the lob
a
retarded developmsnt has left them ages
behind in the march of progress. Few
and widely scattered are these wander
ers out Of the world antiquity, ans
they have not strayed to greater depths
than three and one third miles.
No ray of light, we said. But phoszs
phoresoent gIeam breaks through the
wall of night. In the distance is q fish
like form bearing a curious appendage
which seems to serve him as a lantern.
1t sheds q CHASTITY glow into tue thickness
of the solitude. This creature, then,
has use for his eyes. Shut out from
natures sunlight, ne is feeble star to
himself. His lantern-glow reveals the
presence of other grotesque forms, with
out starlight and without eyes, Fishes
they are, but stranger than fancy ever
pictured. One has a mouth of five
times the length of the body's
diameter. The mouth OF another
opens to twice the length OF the ami
mails body, with q bag-lIl5e pouch
which would hold the entire body six
times over. Another has glaring eyes
like teasaucer, strained TO take in the
thiL phosphorsscence from his neigh
boris lantern. Life is even here-artf-
que, obsolete life, which the ages have
sent by devious path astray, arriy-
ing at our times million years behind
its date.
But we must pause. Here is too much
suggestion for us to contemplate. Our
weird walk must come to an end. Leay-
ing the relm of the paleozoic ghosts aud
shadows, We bail again the light and
warmth for which we were made
Does the story sound like fairy taller
We have not been down to visit the
specter sealm; its objects have been
brougt mp to us by the dredges OF the
English Challenger the French Traveller.
and the American aNlbatross, aud the
other gropers In the ID silence OF deep
a. osssa nd 5gssstst's Unabridged
scrip's tzsrrE and $40 IN