Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-07-07
MeteorologicaI Matter.

meteoroIogicaA matters.
My last bulletin gave forecasts OF the
storm waves 10 cross the continent from
June 80 to July and July 6 to 10, and the
aext will reach the Pacific coast about the
10th, cross the Western mountains by
siose of the 11th, the great central vail US
trom 18th TO 14th and the Eastern States
about the 18th.
The path of this storm will be well 10
the north, very hot weather south of 1t
along the middle and southern latitudes,
and 1t will be at its greatest force from
18th to 10th, after passing east of the
Mississippi.
A wave of cooler and refreshing
weather will move eastward, crossing
the Western mountains about the 18th,
The great central valleys about the 10Th,
and the Eastern States about the 18th
The 1892 drouth, which made its ap-
pearancc in spots during April and May,
will have spread to about its greatest
dimensions by the 10Th of July, and a
lair estimate may then be made as tc
what will be the effect on crops. The
turning point of the drouth will be about
the middle OF July, but many places
will not be relieved till late in August.
l have no reason to change my esti-
mate, made in 1891, that our greatest
crops will be found along and north OF
The fortieth parallel, while many local
crop failures will be found in the south
ern part OF the United States. Coun-
ties OF more than 1900 feet elevation
were notgenerally included among those
where crops would fail.
Vegetation and Coal.
Newberry, the geOlogist, says that
quite a number of foreign boulders and
other transported rock are found in the
coal veins of Ohio. These boulders, in
order to be in the coal vein, must have
been deposited there while il was form
Ing. How could these numerous for
eign rocks get into coal vein being
formed OF vegetable decay
The only means by which foreign
boulders and other rock are transported
Is in deep water by ice or roots of trees,
and to have this deep water and the
forming coal vein at the same time is
an impossibility. To form coal from
vegetation there must be dry or swamp
land afterward covered with water,
and with these conditions the boulders
are found on the top OF the coal veins.
But, as Newberry says, there are nu-
merous cases where these rocks that
have come long journeys are found inn
bedded in the coal vein, completely inn
mersed in coal.
Remember that these coal-imbedded
boulders are not otherwise found in the |
vicinity of the coal veins, but are gem
orally recognized as belonging to rock |
formations that lie hundreds of miles |
away to the northward. Now let some |
advocate give, If he can, any reasonable |
means by which these foreign stones got
to the forming coal-beds while vcgeta-
tion was growing.
Evidently this proves that the coal |
veins were laid down in deep water.
where coal-producing vegetation can
not grow, and indicates that our coal
beds came from sources similar to those
from whence are the other formations
of the earth.
Prof. Vail says that "a boulder weigh
ing 200 pounds, found in the middle Of
a coal seam, is now in the museum at
Columbus, Ohio, and is an irrefutable
evidence that the coal vein from which
1t was taken finished its formation after
the. boulder fell into it and that foreign
boulders thus imbedded are often found
at Jacksonville and Carbondale, Ohio.
Numerous instances are known where
clay seams no thicker than a knife blade
are found parting two coal veins, no
vegetable fossils in the clay and foot
or more of coal above this clay seam.
How could the vegetation exist to form
these heavy coal veins above that thin
as paper clay seam?
Is 1t not far more reasonable that the
GOAL fell from above into the sea, and
after portion of it settled, a great
river, at its flood, muddied the water,
the clay quickly setting on the first
coal vein and after that the carbon that
still fioated in the waters settled on the
clay ocean?
Carbon forms in the stove-pipe or the
chimney from smoke, because the oxy-
gen OF the atmosphere does not reach
the smoke in sufficient quantity to COM
bine with IL and form carbonic acid gas.
But the greater portion of the carbon | I
which is carried up in the form of !
smoke forms the gas by uniting with
oxygen This carbonic acid gas is the
food OF plant life, and although it is not
combustible-will not burnt fur
nishes the carbon of vegetable growth,
and is the substance of vegetation
which gives its fuel properties.
Carbonic acid gas also unites with, or
dissolVes in water, in the proportion of
volumes of gas TO of water. There
are, therefore, two ways by which car
bon in the atmosphere may return to I
solids OF the earth; one through vegeta- !
ton and one through water Chemists !
tell us that there is now about one part !
Of carbonic acid gas in our atmosphere I
20 $4,000 parts OF other matter.
The smoke that constantly rises from 9
III kinds Of fires, including volcanoes, !
'aturates our atmosphere with carbon, !
Ind we know that portion OF this comes :
back to solid earth through vegetation. !
But does any part of it change back to L
carbon in any other way? Q
To utterly overthrow the accepted I
heory OF the origin of coal, all that is 9
Necessary is to show how the carbon
'ould have reached and remained for
ime suspended in our atmosphere with
.ut destroying all animal and vegetable
ife, and this l will eudeavor to do when
am done with the negative side Of the y
ubject and proceed to the discussion of Z
Is Affirmative.
Copyrighted 1872, by w. T. Foster. v