Year: 1875

Stories Told by Rocks.


CAN rocks tell stories? Well, not
taEse7toods, at least; or, in fact, any other
kind Of stories that have to be told in
words. But they have a way of telling
stories, and very interesting ones too.
These stories must be interpreted,
though, before they can be understood;
and their interpreter is geology


Suppose, for instance, that man who
knew nothing at all about geology
should see the plain print Of q ratn-drop
in solid rock. Such person would prob
ably think the single drop of water had
forced its way into hard stone. But ge
ology makes US understand that the
rock was bank of soft clay when the
rain-drop fell on it, making little dent,
which remained in it after it had turned
to stone.


In this way rocks relate their own his
tories; and they not only do that but
they tell us many wonderful stories of
other things-stories of floods and fires,
volcanoes and earthquakes, gigantic
wild beasts and men hardly less fierce
and savage, strange and terrible mon
sters and even dragons, or at least Great
ures that looked very much like them.


These things that looked like dragons
were called pterodactyls, from two Greek
words meaning ewing" and finger"
They had wings very much like those of
bats, joined to long claw or finger on
the outsides of their four feet, and with
these wings they could fly fast enough
to catch swift insects. Their heads were
something like those of crocodiles, and
their great strong jaws and sharp teeth
must have had very dangerous and
altogether unpleasant look. They were
of different sizes, but some were very
large indeed, with wings more than twice
as wide, from tip to tip, as those of the
biggest bird in the world. These fright
full things lived very long time ago, and
their skeletons have been found among
the rocks where they have been for
thousands of years. The rocks have
kept them safe for US, so that we could
tell what sort of creatures used to live
in the world in very ancient times.
Skeletons of many other strange and
terrible animals have also been found
among the rocks. One of them was
tremendous elephant, a great deal bigger
than any you ever saw in menagerie,
with long tusks which curled around
like one of those twisted horns we some
times see in musical instrument store,
and which looks as if somebody had
been trying to tie them in
knot. Others were like various
animals now in the world, but very
much larger. Some of the bones that
have been found belonged to birds which
must have been almost as big as the
"rocs" you have probably read about in
the "Arabian Nights" 1t would be very
inconvenient, l think, to have one of
those tall fowls around now, particularly
if he should take notion to pick up a
little boy or two in his big beak and
stalk away with him. And the people
that should go out cunning after such
game would have to take small cannon
along if they expected to do much harm
at one shot.


The men that lived in the days when
some of these monstrous beasts and birds
still remained on the earth were very
rough and savage fellows, and were not
bit afraid of them, even if they were so
much "over their size" Although they
didn't have any guns or pistols, or any
other weapons that we would think much
of, yet they not only defended themselves
against the great animals, but even
hunted them, ate their flesh and clothed
themselves with their skins. The rocks
prove this, and although there is not
room here to tell you how, yet when you
study geology you will understand it and
learn a great many other interesting
things.


But these fossils, as they are called,
which are found in the rocks, are not
really more interesting than the rocks
themselves. For every rock, stone 10
pebble on the earth has been made to
undergo some wonderful changes. Every
lump of coal was once part of tree in
an ancient forest All limestone has
been formed from shells by the ocean
which broke and ground them up until
they became dust, which was afterward
hardened to stone. Many beautiful
churches and dwellings are partly built
| of sort of stone which was once moth
| ing but sand. Other kinds of rock were
formerly clay. Some owe their origin to
living things, such, for instance, as coral,
which IS made by little insect. And
very large number were made to take
their present form by great fires inside
the earth, which melted older rocks,
sometimes changing them to marble,
granite, ETC., and sometimes pouring
them out through the craters of volcanoes
in the form of lava.


These changes which have been TAX
ing place ever since the foundation of
the world have often given the rocks
very strange shapes and peculiar aspects.
Very often they look just as if they had
been put together by men, and ignorant
people have often believed that such was
the case. The "Giant's Causeway," on
the coast of Ireland, looks like
the beginning of great bridge
made of stone columns, extending
out into the sea, and many of the people
in the neighborhood still believe it was
made by race of giants who intended
making bridge or causeway all the way
across to Scotland. On the shore of the
island of Staffa, near the coast of Scot
land, there is great cavern which some
people supposed to have been the palace
of an ancient Scottish chieftaln named
Fingal, and SO it has been named Fin
gals Cave"


Many other strange formations OF
rocks, which look like very large build.