The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-12

have been cut the suns heat on the clay
 often causes cracks, and when the rains
 come in semi-tropic torrents these deepen
 until such ravines as are familiar to Mo-
 bilians about Spring Hills are the result,
 only they are often of more rapid
 growth.
 At Chehaw they took train for Mont
 gomery Even at that early time, and in
 a region "where the school-master has
 not been much abroad" we meet the pro
 totype of the newsboy of today-Lyell's
 picture of him unconcernedly jumping on
 and off moving trains, is the butcher
 boy" We all knew. One boy was calling
 out in the midst of pine-barren, A
 novel by Paul le Koch-the Bulwer of
 France-all the go-more popular than the
 Wandering Jew" Lyell having bought newspapers promlscuously throughout the
 many states he visited found our press
 to be in every way on an equal with that
 of Great Britain. A large portion of the
 papers were devoted to literary extracts,
 to novels, travels, tales and often more
 serious subjects"
 Reaching Montgomery, he remained
 there a few days examining the geologic
 formation and remains of that region. It
 was his intention to go directly to Tus-
 caloosa, only one hundred miles distant
 by land, but every one advised him that
 he would at that season save both time
 and money by taking an S0o-mile trip
 down the Alabama river by boat to Mobile
 and up again on the Tombeckbee. The
 "Amaranth" was scheduled to leave at
 10 o'clock, January 2S, 1S46. Accustomed
 to northern punctuality. they went down
 ance that she might not sail until next day. It was his first sight of our mag nifcent southern river boats.' He and
 Mrs Lyell made up their minds to look on 1t .as their inn and read and write there," and were soon enjoying it's lux tries which southern manners and hot climate require" He describes very fully the peculiar construction which adapts the boats to rivers that rise and fall rap idly. When recording that some of them could float in two feet of water he adds, but they cannot quite realize the boast of western captain, that he could sail wherever it was damp.
 It would be too much to write in detail of all the things that interested Lyell, | for nothing seems to have escaped him. At each landing, however, he obtained | many cretaceous fossils, so concluded to | stop a few days at Claiborne. whose bluff | had long been known to geoloSists as | classic ground" having alreaov yielded | 400 species of tertiary shells, bei1nging to | the Eocene formation. He notes too the i finding of fossil zeuglodon in the same l cliff by Mr. Hale of Mobile. The morn l ing after our arrival, January 18th, tho | thermometer stood at 80 degrees F. Tn the | shade, and the air was as balmy as an l English summer day. Before the mousse stood row of Pride-of-India trees ladeneu
 with punches of yellow berries. l had often been told by the negroes that the American robin got drunk on this fruit, | and we now had an opportunity of wit ! messing its narcotic properties; TOT we i saw some children playing with one or | these birds before the house. having caught it after it had been eating freely ] of these berries. My wife, seeing that the ! robin was in no small danger of perish | ing, bought 1t of the children for some l sugar -plums, and it soon revived Tn our l room, and new out or lne WiluoW ih"' evening we enjoyed sight of one of those | glorious sunsets, the beauty of which in | these latitudes is so striking, when the | clouds and sky are lighted up with l streaks of brilliant yellow, red and green, 1 which If a painter should represent faith fully. might seem as exaggerated and paudv as thy colors of an American for | est in autumn wher compared with l European woods.
 He crossed the river to visit the Blounts at woodlands. Leaving his wife with Mrs. Blount, he went with MT. Blount by carriage to Clarksville where the enor- nous fossil zeuglodons had been round | "The district we passed through was sit
 uated in the fork of the Alabama and Tombeckbee rivers, where the aboriginal forest was only broken here ana tnere py a few clearings. At Macon my attention | was forcibly called to the newness oi things by my friends pointing out to me the ground where there had been bloody
 fight with the Choctaws and Chickasaws'