Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-08-09
TWO LITTLE BIOLOGISTS.

TWO LITTLE BIOLOGISTS.
We send you some rocks which our party
| gathered in canyon about sixteen miles
northwest of Fort Worth They were
taken from the bed OF the stream fully fifty
| feet below the common level of the sur
| rounding country What are they What
do they Indicate We are two little girls,
| aged eight and ten years respectively, and
| we would much like for YOU TO answer Us
through The GAZETTE.
LOVE MORELAND,
Azle, Tex. GUssIE REYSoLDs
P. S.-We also send rock ont of our
yard-the one with hole in IL There are
many like it to be found hereabouts.
L. NJ
| c.. r.
| Had it occurred to our young friends to
place numbers ON the specimens sent, keep
ing a copy and description for their own
reference, we might have been the better
enabled to make them understand US
clearly, but we think we can get at II pretty
well anyway. There are ten specimens
in all; and they are very interesting. We
were extremely glad TO get them-such IA
vors from the young folks always please us,
showing, as they do, that the people to
take charge of the world after US elders
| have retired Will be Il people interesting
themselves in science, the noblest Roman
among all others so far as relates TO human
| progress.
The large specimen not i'll the box. and
| looking like a great, rough, whitish-colored
| beet, is 4 stalactite. To pronounce the word
| correctly the accent must be placed on the
| second syllable-get the old folks 10 fix that
! for you. In the box are two additional
| stalactites, one looking like an ordinary
| long blood beet of the garden (small size,
! save that like the large specimen its color
| is dirty white, and the other near same
| length but more irregular in form, being
somewhat branched and jumbled about in
| its structure. Do YOU know what the Ger
\ mans call 'noodles?" They are made by
| rolling wheat dough out between the hands
in small rolls to be employed in thickening
soup. Well, this last named stalactite
| looks like it might have been made by
taking up a handful of noodles and
| squeezing them together, criss-cross and
every way, in mass some six inches in
| length and an inch and half through at
/ the thickest point.
| A stalactite is usually formed in a cavern
| under ground, and it is more than merely
| probable that your stalactites We're so
| formed. The canyon visited by you is just
on the edge of what biologists call the coal
| measures, a formation in which caves are
more or less common. Long, long ago.
| there was cave where the canyon now is.
| most likely, but the waters wearing out the
| deep canyon finally cut into and destroyed
| the cave, leaving the stalactites that once
hung from the roof lying scattered about
where you found them. y stalactite is
simply rock icicle, so to speak. You know
| how an icicle forms on the ewes of the
house Water runs down slowly. and thin
layers of ice freeze, one atop of the other,
until we have an icicle That's how the
stalactite is formed, only no freezing fig
ures in the case. A little stream of water
heavily charged with lime trickles down
from the roof of the cave. It is what we
call '>hard water" A little of the lime set
ties on the rock where the tiny stream
comes out, then little more atop of that,
and so on until stalactite is made 1t
takes a very long time to form stalactite
The largest specimen sent some ten inches
in length and six inches through was prob
ably hundredscof years in forming.
Where the water dripping down from the
top of the cave strikes the rock floor beneath
formation similar to the stalactite is some
times built up in the form of cone. This
formation, while identical in character. is
distinguished from the other by being
called a stalagmite-accent on the second
syllable, the same as i'll the first instance.
There are in the box two specimens which
have the appearance of wood (you can see
the grain, and two which have the appear
ance of bark. People sometimes call the
likes of this petrified wood or petrified bark,
and not few think that wood or bark
placed in certain streams or ponds will be-
come so petritied in a short time This last
is all mistake. The specimens under con-
sideration are what we style ignitized
wood, or lignitiZed bark-accent on the
first syllable. They sure enough represent
what was once wood or barb, but not that
OF any species of tree now growing in any
part of the world. 1t was growth of the
coal age, so-called, and the lapse of time
necessary to get it into the condition as
characterizing it when found b. you was so
long that we shall not attempt to give you
any figures on it.
One of the wood specimens has scattered
over 1t numerous small glittering crystals
that may have made you think of diamonds
They are not diamonds, however, but
crystals of gypsum formed by combina-
ton Of lime and sulphur
The three very pretty specimens in the
box weighing about two ounces each, being
irregular in shape, though inclined to
roundish, and having rich golden appear
ance when broken are iron pyrites-ac-
cented on the second syllable for correct
pronunciation. The mineral is one attract
ing great deal of attention on account of
its bright metallic lustre, not few finders
surprising it TO be gold. On this last ac-
count it is often called fools gold: II is
rather common substance and one of no
particular value.
The brownish, cup-hke rock from the |
yard is low grade iron ore, common in
most sandy regions. One occasionally finds
it as hollow tubes, foot or two in length. |
Its composition is sand, cemented together |
by iron brought as a solution in water. The |
beautiful cactus growing in the hollow of |
the specimen which YOU seem to have