Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-05-12
The Earliest Animals.

however, animals appeared, and the
LAYERS of Silurian rock are found il
some places to be entirely composed
of the shells of animals. Sometimes
these shells are very small, but some
are larger than those of any animal
now i'm existence. Nor is it by any
means certain that small animals were
created first. Little and big seem to
have existed together. We find the
shells of animals so small as to be in
visible except under the microscope,
side by side with shells four feet
broad. The framework of the tiniest
creature which helped to make up
these layers of rock is extremely
beautiful.
The little coral animals commenced
their busy career during this age,
building limestone reefs and making
the beautiful chain coral which can
still be seen on the limestone cliffs in
the western states. Another kind of
animal, related to the coral polyp,
and called ''crinoid," must have
greatly added to the beauty of the ST.
lurian seas. We find its remains in
the shape of curiously carved, six
sided body From each of five sides
a lily-like arm was sent off, and the
animal was fastened to the rock by a
stem running from the center of the
sixth side. Professor Agassiz called
them ''stone lilies
Other layers of rock are composed
wholly of the remains of queer ami
mails called 'trilobites. They be-
longed to the same family as our lob
sters, and varied in size from one
sixth of an inch to two feet in length.
There were two great depressions run
ming lengthwise in their bodies,
which divided them into three lobes.
They had also the same ring-like di-
visions running around the body as
are seen in Holsters. They swan on
their backs, and had the power of
rolling themselves into a ball. Prob
ably this was done to defend them
selves from some foe. Many were
caught in this position when the mud
was changing into rock, and kept for
us to see. In other layers of rock
are found fossils of different animals,
of the lobster kind. Nothing like
these old animals is found now.
So many mollusks-that is, soft
animals with hard shells, like oysters
then swan in the waters, that this
age is sometimes called the cage Of
Mollusks." They were of all sizes
and shapes, and there were millions
and millions of them. There was one,
belonging to the same family as our
nautilus, which was four feet across.
Another resembled a nautilus unroll-
ed. 1t was from ten to fifteen feet
! long and measured foot in breadth.
The remains of fishes are found, for
the first time, in some of the upper
layers belonging to this period. In
Wales,in the land of the Silures, they
claim to have found one layer COM
posed entirely of fish bones.
Now, there is something we must
keep IN Inluu when we speak Of re
mains in geology, or else we shall
be disappointed when we see these
fossils. If you should ever break
open stone, and have the great good
fortune to find in it the remains of a
! leaf, what would the remains be like?
A real leaf? No, nothing but the i'm
preston of one. No wood-no pulp.
Simply picture engraved on the hard
rock. So, also, with the remains of
a fsh,-no body, no bones, -onl Y an
impression but so true a one that
biologists can tell even the way it
swan, and, in some cases, the ma
ture of it's food AS you were told
before, these remains are called fos-
sils. What a thrill of pleasure it
must give to find one yourself = to
think that little DIT of world history
has remained sealed up in a rock for
centuries, waiting for you to find it
So far, then, as we have journeyed
in our travels through the back ages,
we see a world of water, with such
plants and animals as live in water.
1t is true that little patches of dry
| land existed, as at the close of the
first period; and these had even been
increased little by the addition of
beaches. But these bits of land were
so small, compared with the vast eX-
panse of ocean, that we are justified
in calling it "world of water" 1t
must have been very thickly inhab-
tied "water-world, since whole lay
ers of rock were made from the ami
]
padded on its surface .-St. Nicholas.
| BE YOUR Own DoCF0R.-It won't cost you half
so much. Do not delay. Send three 2-cent stamps
| for postage, and we will send you DIR. Kaufmann's
great work. fine colored plates from life, disease,
| its causes and home cure, Address A. P. Ordway
! & Co., Boston, Mass.
Three Women Who Write.
Three women whom the public
takes an interest in were on upper
Broadway the other afternoon. The
first was the Marquise LAMA, the
daughter of DR.. Hammond, a stout,
well-proportioned, bright-eyed, rosy
checked woman, with a wealth of