Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-12
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Astronomical Phenomena chalk Formation
in Te1as-Eleetrlc Lights and Vegeta-
ton Electricity In the Dairy, Etc.

The astronomical phenomena of TIN
week may be put down as specially in
teresting, yet no extended mention o
any of them is called for ut our hands
owing to the fact that in these notes VT
have already pointed out similar phen-
omena with view to locating the plan
cts. On this, Sunday night, (l2th)
| the moon will be in conjunction with the
| planet Mercury, but the moon being
very near its charge, which takes place
on the 18th, the conjunction will be in
visible.
Mercury is the nearest positively
known planet to the own, and the
smallest in our regular planetary sys-
TEN. His diameter ia 5000 miles, and
his distance from the sun 80, 900. 00C
| miles. There is supposed to be another
planet inside the orbit of Mercury ,
which astronomers have named Vulcan
yet nothing is yet fully known with
reference to the matter.
On Tuesday light G4th), the moon
will be in conjunction with Uranus, but
this conjunction will also be invisible.
Uranus is the seventh planet IN our sys-
planet SO, 900 miles IN diameter, and dis
lance from the sur l 1853 900 GOO miles.
On Friday evening Q7th) the moon
will be in conjunction with Venus, our
beautiful evening star. The conspicuous
star seen only about one degree from
Venus on this same night Is the fixed star
Antares.
The calculations upon which we draw
for this Information were made for the
longitude of Washington City, conse-
quently we don't find the conjunctions
appearing so close at Fort Worth as they
would appear there. In most cases the
moon and the planet are about as near
each other the night before as they are
on the night named.
"a.
AS was stated in former note of this
column, Fort Worth sits upon what is
known to biologists as the cretaceous or
chalk system. Some of our people have
expressed surprise at this, giving as q
reason that they can see no chalk. They
do see chalk every day of their lives
when they are out on our streets. Pro-
fessor Dumble, state geologist, says in
his first annual report, page XIV:
"Chalk is essentially deposit formed in
deep seas, and usually contains remains
of minute forms of life, which existed in
the water. These Chalk deposits may
retain their original character or be
hardened by various agencies into lime
stones. 1t will thus be seen that all the
limestone underlying Fort Worth is sim
ply hardened chalk. Time was when 1t
was soft like the ordinary chalks, but
some agency has hardened it into lime
stone. If you examine a specimen
closely you will discover that it pre-
sents much the appearance of ordinary
chalk, about all the difference to be
noted lies in the fact that it is too hard
to mark with.
Professor R. T. Hill in first annual re-
port geological survey of Texas, page
los, says of this chalk formation, that it
Occupies the area of the state known as
the black prairie, the grand prairie and
the two cross-timbers, and unstudied
areas in the eastern and trans Pecos
regions. To these Tchalk
strata the state owes large part of her
agricultural and general prosperity, for
they are the foundation of the rich
black waxy and other calcareous soils of
those regions. In addition to their
agricultural features they are the most
productive source of building material,
while adjacent to the parting between
them, extending the entire length of the
state and depending upon their strait
graphy, Is a remarkable area for arte-
sian wells, as seen at Fort Worth, Waco,
Taylor, San Marcos and else
With reference to the chalk regions
Professor Hill further says in the same
report, page 106: "The rocks originated
as sediments of the Atlantic ocean, laid
down with great uniformity during two
Of the long epochs of subsistence and
emergence when the waters covered this
region many hundred fathoms deep.
These ancient sediments are now more or |
less consolidated, and are elevated into a |
fertile land which is decomposing under |
atmospheric conditions into soils and de- |
bris, aud in its turn being slowly trans
ported to the ocean, where it will make
other rocks. They now occur in regular |
sheets or strata, dipping beneath each |
other toward the sea, while the project
ing western edges, each of which wealth
srs into and imparts its individuality to
its own peculiar belt of country, outcrop
IN long, marrow belts, sub-paralIel to the
present ocean out line. Thus it Is that as
one proceeds inland from the coast, he
crosses successfully lower and
over sheets of these formations. The
oldest, or lowest, in O geological sense,