Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1900-06-14
OUR SCHOOLS.

lately paid visit TO Mr.. Slayton's
museum, seven miles west of Bedding.
The following written by Grace Travis
is a description of the excursions:
JOUR- TRIP TO MIR. STATIONS
When we were invited TO go to Mr..
Slayton's to spend the day and study
his collection, we who could go consid-
cred ourselves very fortunate, and con-
tinued to think so, until we were told
that we must write description OF a
few things which we thought most in.
teresting, and then the feeling sudden
ly changed until we almost felt that
those who could not go, were, may be,
the fortunate ones after all.
things, that it is hard for me to tell
which were the most interesting.
Some of them are interesting because
of'their beauty, others because OF their
wonderful formation, and still others
because Of their history, but there was
one class which | cannot see as came
under any OF these classes, but which
every one seemed to be interested in,
and that was the lunch basket, or rath-
err their contents. But il they had not
differed some from the bareback
which we saw in Mr.. Slayton's collec-
ton, am afraid they would not have
been considered as attractive.
Among those which are most attac-
tive to look at, and also to think of
their wonderful formation is the coral.
When we think how all these beauti-
full shapes and colors are formed, it
seems impossible that they could haye
been formed by such tiny animals as
the coral animals are. Mr.. Slayton g
collection contained nearly every kind
OF coral formation. There were pink
and white branching coral, and pieces
that did not seem TO have any special
shape, but there was one piece, called
mushroom coral, which was pure
white and resembled a mushroom in
every particular.
The collection of precious stones
which contained every kind from dia-
monds TO quartz crystals, are very in
teresting to look at, and although Mr..
Marvin insinuated that only the girls
would care for that case, we noticed
that he and the boys seemed as much
interested in them as the girls.
The shells are all beautiful, and
some of them wonderful, two OF which
are couple of the "Chambered Nauti-
lus.n One OF these is whole, but the
other is sawed in two so as to show the
inside section. Each of these sections,
which are something of a crescent
shape, is connected with the others by
a tiny hole in the partition, by which
when a storm comes up he fills enough
the bottom where he stays until the
storm is over.
Another interesting thing is the
pieces of "Agatized'' wood. He had
several pieces of this, but two of them
had been polished so as TO show their
beauty. They contained almost every
color, but especially green and pink.
Next to these is piece of ''Opalized'
wood which is pure white.
In one case Mr.. Slayton had several
fossil fish These are the skeletons oil
fish petrfied in the rock. Some o.
them are perfect having no part of the
skeleton missing. He also had lea1
petrifed in the same way.
A very curious specimen is piece o.
petrifed mud or shale on which could
be plainly seen the footprints where
some animal had walked across il
while it was soft, and between the foot
prints is mark where it had dragged
its tail along. Mr.. Slayton said that
he thought it must have been mud
turtle.
In the case with the precious stones
was small piece of rock, which he
had securely corked in a medicine vial
This piece of rock was about an inch
and half long, and about as large
around as common lead pencil. 1t i:
piece of the Aerolite which fell neal
Allegan few years ago. 1t looked
very much like any dark colored stone
but MIR. Slayton said that he paid 5:
for this small piece.
Two very beautiful specimans are
the pieces of "Celestite" and Calsite
The Celestite which is Opaque is 8
beautiful pale blue. Mr. Slayton SAID
that it is called Celestite after the
Celestial Gate" The Calsite is Just
like the Celestite except that it is 8
pale pink instead OF blue.
In mentioning these, / do not NEAR
to say that they are all that were in
teresting or even all that would at
tract special attention, for to mention
them all would be an impossibilit,
even though the girls are not sup
posed to write upon the historical
specimens