successive epochs, it gradually wasted away, broke up into islands, and finally disappeared. The ocean reelaimed its ancient sovereignty, and its shores gradually assumed their present outline. Two familiar geological principles must be taken as our starting-point. The first is that denudation is equal to deposition. If a million tons of mud were in a certain time deposited by the Nile on its banks and at its delta, it is evident that a million tons of rock must have been washed down from the regions of the Upper Nile. Or if the sea eat away a million tons of rock from the coast of Norfolk, it is clear that the same weight of sand and mud must be deposited in the adjacent seas. The existence, therefore, of sedimentary strata of a certain bulk proves the former existence of a neighboring land of equal dimensions as certainly as a bottle of wine on your table proves that there is one bottle less in your cellar. A continent deposited means a continent denuded. But we have not only to ascertain the quantity of the material deposited; we have to find out the direction from which it came. This leads us to a second geological axiomthat the proximity of land is known by the character of the derived sediment. A conglomerate, or "pudding-stone," is simply a consolidated pebble-beach; so that, if we find beds of conglomerate, we know that the land from which they were derived must have been close at hand. Sandstones and shales (laminated or bedded clays) have also their distinctive teaching. A river brings down to the sea large quantities of mud and sand derived from the wearing down of the higher land. The particles of sand being heavier than the particles of mud, will sink first, and will form sandbanks in the estuary of the river, or at no greater distance from its mouth. The finer portions of the clay will remain suspended for a much longer time; and, if they are drawn within the influence of powerful currents, they may be swept out for hundreds of miles, and deposited in the ocean far from land. Conglomerates, sandstones, and clays (or shales), are thus indices of the distance of the lands from which they are respectively derived. shale into a limestone. In each case the land lies in the direction of the former of the two. If a conglomerate pass to the west into a sandstone, the land lay to the east. If a shale graduate to the north into a limestone, the land lay to the south. The thickness of strata must also be taken into account in searching for the direction of the land. In a delta, for example, the beds of sand or clay thin out toward the deep sea. The washings from a coast also follow the same principle. The thick end, therefore, of a series of rock beds points in the direction of the land from which the material was derived. In our present argument we are chiefly concerned with the Paleozoic groups-or the most ancient rocks in which any fossils are found-especially those of the United States, which are very favorable for our purpose, being of great horizontal extent, and comparatively undisturbed. In Western Europe the older groups of rocks cover more limited areas, and are generally much altered, twisted, broken, and dislocated, so as to render their study less satisfactory. The area in North America to which our study is chiefly directed, is in extent about 1,000,000 square miles, being the great mass of land which lies between the SANDSTONE SANDSTONE & SHALE CONGLOMERATE & SHALE & SANDSTONE LIMESTONE LIMESTONE LIMESTONE LIMESTONE LIMESTONE SANDSTONE SANDSTONE E 8 6 WEST SIDE OF THE 3 OLD ATLANTIS FIG. 1.— DEPOSITS FORMED BY THE DENUNDATION OF THE OLD ATLANTIS ON THE WEST. (Scale exaggerated.) (1) Hudson River Group; (2) Oneida Conglomerate; (3) Medina Sandstone: (4) Niagara and Clinton Groups ; (5) Oriskany Sandstone; (6) Chemung and Hamilton Group; (7) Catskill Group; (8) Carboniferous Group. It would be beyond the scope of this article to indicate the limitations to this statement; it is sufficient for our purpose that it is roughly true. The evidence derived from limestones is rather more complicated. Some limestones are deep-sea deposits; or, at any rate, are formed in waters free from the washings from the land. Such is the chalk of the southeastern counties of England, which has its modern representative in the calcareous mud which covers the middle depths of the Atlantic. Other limestones are produced by the building up and wearing down of coral reefs; and, though they do not necessarily prove that the land was far distant, are evidences that the sea was free from mud and sand, for the coral zoophytes will not grow in turbid water. If strata are traced for any distance in their horizontal extension, they are frequently found to pass gradually into sediment of a different character. A conglomerate may graduate into a sandstone, a sandstone into a shale, a Atlantic and the Mississippi, east and west; and between Canada and Georgia, north and south. In the east the strata are crumpled up into a series of folds, with a northeast and southwest strike parallel to the Atlantic coastline, and forming the highland of the Appalachian mountain system. Toward the west those great waves of rock gradually flatten out, so that on the Mississippi the strata lie horizontal. The rocks which cover this area are chiefly Palæozoic, including the formations from the Lower Cambrian to the Carboniferous. We shall study these groups in ascending order. Commencing with the Lower Silurian, we pass over the formation below the Hudson River group, as their testimony does not bear upon our topic. The Hudson River formation in eastern New York is 700 feet in thickness; on Lake Huron it has thinned out to 180 feet; still further west, in Michigan, it is attenuated to eighteen feet. The evidence from the thinning of the beds is confirmed by the change in the character of the sediment. In New York the group consists of sandstones and shales; in Ohio it has become highly calcareous. The Oneida Conglomerate is an Appalachian deposit. In Pennsylvania it is 700 feet thick. It does not extend to the west. The Medina Sandstone is 1,500 feet thick in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Consisting of finer material than the underlying conglomerate, it reaches further to the west, but thins out in that direction. Coming next to the Upper Silurian, we take first the Clinton group. In the eastern part of our area, it consists of shales with some thin beds of limestone; but to the west it is represented by limestones. It stretches further west than the Medina sandstone. The Niagara formation is represented in the Appalachians by shales, which pass toward the west into limestones. thickness of the above group is at least four or five miles in the east, but in the west it has diminished to less than one mile; forming a great wedge, a thousand miles square, the thick side of which is directed eastward. Second: when the strata grow more caicerous, that transition always takes place westward. Both of these facts lead to the same conclusion, that the land from which this great mass of rock was derived lay to the east This deposit is a thick series--that is, in what is now the North Atlantic Ocean. Next in order is the Devonian system, the base of which is the Oriskany Sandstone. of sandstones in the Appalachians, but in the State of Missouri it has become a limestone. The Hamilton group in Eastern New York is a sandy deposit with land plants, but westward it gradually passes into a calcareous shale, with limestones. The Chemung formation is similar to the Hamilton. In New York it is sandy, in Iowa it is calcareous. The Catskill group is confined to the Appalachian area. In that mountain-chain it is from 5,000 to 6,000 feet in The Millstone Grit consists of grits and conglomerates. formations were derived from the same source, though It is absent on the Mississippi. the testimony is not so complete, for the reason above stated. The Coal Measures are 3,000 feet thick in the Appalachian range, and consist of shales and sandstones. West of the Mississippi they are represented by a limestone. Figure 1 illustrates the thinning out of the Appalachian deposits, with their passage into limestones. From these details we gather two important factsFirst the strata thin out toward the west. Some of the formations are almost confined to the Appalachian range, others stretch some distance to the west, while others reach the Mississippi in an attenuated form. The total The Silurian and Cambrian rocks of Western Europe are of great thickness. The Lower Cambrian of Shropshire alone is about six miles thick, as may be seen in the Longmynd Hills, near Church Stretton. The Upper Cambrian rocks of North Wales are estimated at 8,000 feet. The Silurian series of Britain can scarcely be less than 20,000 feet. The Cambrian and Silurian united will not be over-estimated at a thickness of ten miles. In Scandinavia these systems have become greatly attenu FIG. 3.-CALAMITE RESTORED. (30 to 40 feet high.) ated. Murchison calculated that 30,000 feet of Lower Silurian strata (his Lower Silurian includes the Upper Cambrian of most living geologists) in Britain, were represented by only 1,200 feet in Sweden and Norway. The same author estimated that the Silurian rocks in Russia were probably not a fortieth part of the vertical magnitude of the magnificent British deposits. The Devonian strata of Britain also thin out considerably toward the Ural Mountains. In Ireland and Britain, they are largely composed of sandstones and conglomerates; in continental Europe they are for the most part calcareous. During the Upper Carboniferous period, land conditions prevailed in Britain; toward Eastern Europe, marine deposits predominated. The thin end of the Paleozoic wedge in Europe is thus seen to be directed toward the east, and the land from which the strata were derived must consequently have been situated to the west. Thus FIG. 4.-LEPIDODENDRON RESTORED. (40 feet high.) the Old Atlantis, by means of its rivers and the waste of its coastline, probably helped to build up lands on both the west and the east. We cannot, however, suppose that deposition took place only on two sides of the Old Atlantis. During the Paleozoic epochs, marine limestones were deposited in several parts of the Arctic regions, so that an open sea must have spread in that direction, and some of the waste of the old land must have been carried into that sea. The same wearing down of the land must also have taken place to the south, unless, indeed, the Atlantis was part of a great continent which stretched out into what is now the South Atlantic Ocean. FIG. 5.-SKULL AND SHOULDERS OF Archegosaurus minor, ONE OF THE RULING RACE IN THE OLD ATLANTIS. Assuming the Old Atlantis to have been an island, we shall scarcely be exaggerating if we conclude that it was at least as large as Australia, which is about 2,400 miles from east to west, and 1,700 from north to south. The denudation of the western side, as we have seen, produced a mass of land as large as Australia; and denudation on east, north, and perhaps south, should at least double our estimate. I am desirous, however to err on the side of moderation, and shall be content to make my Old Atlantis the same size as the southern continent. We come next to the climate of the Old Atlantis. We can infer this only from what we know of the climate of North America and Western Europe in Palæozoic times. During the Silurian epoch, the same marine animals which flourished in middle latitudes prevailed to within 400 miles of the North Pole, a fact revealed to us by the fossils collected during the Arctic expedition of Sir George Nares. In Carboniferous times, the same assemblage of land-plants extended, with slight modifications, from the Southern States of America to high polar latitudes. Such facts as these teach us that the climate of our northern hemisphere was very uniform, since the distribution of animals and plants is largely dependent upon temperature and other climatical conditions. This equability of climate in ancient times receives strong confirmation from the distribution of plants in the Miocene period, when even such northern lands as Greenland and Spitzenburg supported a luxuriant vegetation of beeches, oaks, maples, planes, walnuts, ferns, magnolias, and other plants of temperate climes. If the climate of the earth was so free from extremes in times comparatively so recent, we can the more readily believe that such was the case in a more remote epoch. During the Carboniferous period the predominant forms of vegetable life were treeferns, gigantic horse-tails, lycopodiaceous plants and conifers; the balance of probability arising from this flora being in favor of a warm, moist climate. If, as some eminent authorities are of opinion, our sun is cooling down, it must have had greater heating power in such ancient times as those we are considering. Professor P. Martin Duncan is of opinion that our earth is gradually losing its atmosphere as the moon has already lost hers. If this be so, our atmosphere in Palæozoic ages must have been denser than at present. This augmented density would tend to produce a higher temperature, our Alpine experiences proving to us that the cold increases with the rarity of the air. All the evidence we can gather tends to the same conclusion-that the climate of the Old Atlantis was warmer than that of our present globe in the same latitudes. The life of our Atlantis next engages our attention. On this subject we can speak only so far as discovery has led us, and new revelations of fossil life may modify our conclusions. Great changes, of course, took place in the long succession of epochs during which the Old Atlantis supported animals and plants; and I prefer to speak only of the later periods of its existence, because it was then that its forms of life reached their richest development. We know something of the fauna and flora of neighboring lands during the Carboniferous period, and it is fair to infer that the life which flourished in the Old Atlantis was not very different from that of Western Europe and Eastern North America. The king of our ancient continent was not of very distinguished family. He is named Hylonomus (Fig. 5). He belonged to the reptiles, and bore some resemblance to a lizard. There is, indeed, some doubt whether he could claim reptilian rank, as he had close affinity with the amphibians, who are fish during the earlier part of their life, and reptiles only in their riper years. This creature, so far as is at present known, was the highest organization of these early epochs. No bird made the luxuriant forests of tree-ferns and club-mosses vocal with its music, or left the trifid imprint of its feet upon the sands of the shallow estu aries. No mammal, even so lowly as a kangaroo, or a duck-bilied Platypus, still less, so exalted as a lion, or horse, or a monkey, hunted over the plains or sported in the tropical sun. The real monarchs of creation were the Labyrinthodonts, so named from the complex and beautiful structure of their teeth, in which the enamel was arranged in folds resembling the convolutions of the human brain. These belonged to the Amphibia, and some of them still retained in their later reptilian life the traces of their fish origin, such as the arches which contained the gills, and the cartilaginous backbone. Some of them were of gigantic size, such as Baphetes and Anthracosaurus, and must have been mayors of the palace to the more dignified but feebler Hylonomus. Hylonomus, however, was not one of the last scions of a decaying race; he was probably one of the founders and forefathers of the great saurian dynasty, which ruled the world in Mesozoic times, when the Old Atlantis had sunk beneath the waves. Snails made their first appearance in the later ages of our ancient continent, being represented by forms resembling the modern Helix and Pupa. Insects appear to have been tolerably abundant, and were represented in most of the present orders; but some of the earlier types were synthetic "- that is, combining peculiarities of structure now found only in different groups. We have insects resembling May-flies, beetles, cockroaches, crickets and locusts. The myriapods are very peculiar, with segments divided by cross sutures. Amongst the spiders is a curious scorpion, with its twelve eyes disposed in a circle. The plant-life of the later Palæozoic periods-which has been already noticed-is their most conspicuous feature. Ferns are very abundant, some of gigantic size. Calamites resembling enormous horse-tails (Equisetum) grew in dense brakes on low, moist flats. The fruit was a long cone or spike. were more than twenty feet in length (Fig. 3). Lepidodendron was probably a lycopod, but of giant dimensions, reaching in some cases a length of fifty feet or more. The bark was covered with diamond-shaped scars, the leaves were slender and pointed, and spore-cases were formed in spikes at the ends of the branches (Fig. 4). Sigillaria had its bark covered with seal-like scars, and attained equal dimensions with any of the preceding. Numerous other genera abounded, but it is doubtful if, amidst this prolific vegetable life, any flowering plants existed. Many of the types seem to have combined peculiarities now found only in widely-separated groups. Fish were abundant in the rivers and seas of the Old Atlantis. They were all of them "heterocercal "-that is, with the backbone prolonged into the upper lobe of the tail-a peculiarity possessed by comparatively few modern fishes. Most of them were ganoids, the body being covered by large, strong, shining plates. In Fig. 2 we have a representation of the marine life of this ancient period. Some Such were, then the denizens of this ancient continent. They lived and died, and their sepulchres are with us to this day in the form of the hollow trunks of fossil trees, or of beds of iron-stone, clay or sandstone. The very types to which some of them belong are gone, and since their time new types have come into being, in their turn to give place to still higher forms. Of the mode of life of these antique creatures we can form a rough idea. The glory of their existence was, doubtless, to conquer and devour. Suffering and death was the common lot. The great alternative of life was to kill or to be killed. But this seemingly wretched state was not all evil. The perfection of the animal kingdom was to be attained through suffering and conflict. Had these ancient beings been provided with the means of idleness and easily ob tained supplies of food, higher types might never have been produced. Through the immeasurable epochs, amidst the upheaval and decay of continents, with types of life coming slowly into being and as slowly departing, the races of the world were being elaborated into higher form, till man appeared as the crown of the organic world. RECENT PROGRESS IN SCIENCE. AMONG the interesting bird notes made by Mr. C. Nutting during his recent ornithological trip to Nicaragua, was one upon an oriole named Ostinops Montezuma, which is one of the most familiar and conspicuous birds around Lake Nicaragua, where it nakes itself obnoxious to the farmers by feeding upon plantains, Nananas, mangoes, and other cultivated fruits. It lives in colonies, generally located in cocoanut palms, and gets the native name, Orapendola," from its style of nest-building. The nests are long and purse-like, and are generally composed of fine grasses, the entrance being near the top. There are often fifty or more of these nests on one tree; in which particular, as well as in the shape of the nest, this bird closely resembles the "Cacique" oriole of South America. The voice of this oriole, Mr. Nutting says, is almost indescribable, but in some of its phases recalls the noise produced by an ungreased cartwheel. Mr. Nutting made large and valuable collections, including several new species, which will go to the National Museum at Washington. AFTER a study of the bandages of Egyptian mummies, a Belgian inventor has contrived a method of rendering linen impenetrable and very durable. In effect he tans it, using as the chief ingredient of his preservative the green tar of birch-bark, which furnishes the perfume of Russia leather. The tar forms, with alcohol, a solution of great fluidity; but when once dried it becomes resinous and resists the solvent power of alcohol, and the corrosion of acids, while very elastic. This preservative thoroughly penetrates the capillary vessels of tissues, and shuts them against air and dampness so that mold cannot take root, and the aromatic odor drives away insects. The invention can be applied to water-proofing any vegetable tissues, such as linen or cotton clothes, cordage, etc., etc. EXPERIMENTS have lately been conducted in Boston, England, to determine differences of temperature and density of the air, at and above the ground, observations having been made on the top of a church-tower, 260 high, on the belfry, 170 feet high, and at the ground. It was found that during the year just recorded the mean temperature during the day-hours was considerably warmer in the churchyard than at the top of the tower, the difference being especially marked at noon, and in bright days. In foggy weather the top of the tower was almost always warmest, since it rose above the mist; but in cloudy or wet weather the case was reversed. There was no great difference in relative humidity, the top of the belfry showing a small excess of dampness in Summer. THE peculiar scroll-shaped incisions in the bridge of a violin were finally fixed upon as the best, after a long series of trials by Stradivarius. It has been suggested by a member of the Royal Society of Great Britain, in a recent paper, that their use is found in the fact that they sift the vibrations communicated by the strings, allowing those only, or mainly, to pass to the fret which would be efficient in bringing the best tones from the body of the instrument. Injurious vibrations, tending to give a rocking motion to the bridge, are, for the most part, absorbed by the greater elasticity given to the upper part of the bridge by the cutting. This view is sustained by scientific experiments. THE May number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute contains an elaborate article by N. B. Clark, U.S.N., urging the adoption of petroleum as fuel in warships for the purpose of attaining an extraordinary speed in emergencies-chasing or running away. The same boilers which would serve with anthracite coal would also serve with petroleum, and ward off the impending necessary change from anthracite to bituminous coal, which seems to be needful in order to secure a sufficiently great speed in new warships. Its many other advantages are pointed out, and interesting facts given, drawn from the experience of foreign navies. THE drainage of the Great Meadows, in Warren County, N.J., which has been going on for some time under the care of the geological survey of the State, is proceeding favorably. Ordinary rains are quickly carried off; the autumnal and miasmatic diseases, formerly so much dreaded in that neighborhood, have disappeared; and the waste swamp-land, wherever brought into cultivation, shows a decided superiority over the surrounding uplands. It has been discovered that wire colored according to the processes of Nobilé and Becqueral with alkaline plumbates and 'ferrates not only resisted all galvanic action, but no longer conducted the electric current. As an insulator it seems quite as effective as gutta percha or resin, is durable and cheap. J. EMERSON REYNOLDS, F.R.S., concludes that the truth of the disputed atomic weight of beryllium is 9:2, and that the metal is a diad with the symbol for its oxide, BEO. This goes to show that beryllium is the first member of a diad series of elements, of which calcium, strontium and barium are homologues. ENTERTAINING COLUMN, composer may very properly make overtures. WITH AN EYE TO BUSINESS.-A musical young lady says that a ass, the maligned man wrote back and signed his note, "Yours, A MAN having written to another in a rage, and called him an fraternally!” "CAN any one tell what the wind whistles for ?" asked a young man at a picnic. "It whistles for the leaves to dance by," demurely replied a young lady. "WALK slower, papa," cried the little girl whose short steps were no match for the strides of her masculine progenitor; "can't you go nice and slow, like a policeman ?” A BOSTON housemaid, who, about to leave unexpectedly, was ladies speak such bad grammar.' urged to give a reason for it, simply said: "I can't stay; the young ONE of the sufferers by a late railway accident was rushing wildly about, when some one asked if he was hurt. "No," he said, "but I can't find my umbrella." "You don't look happy," said a man to a neighbor, who was just coming down the steps of his house one cold morning. "No," replied the neighbor, with a shiver; "it's cold without and scold within !" THE DEAREST SPOT.-" My dear," said a sentimental wife, "home, you know, is the dearest spot on earth." "Well, yes,' said the practical husband, "it does cost about twice as much as any other spot." "My case is just this," said a man to a lawyer. "The plaintiff will swear that I hit him. I will swear that I did not. Now, what can you lawyers make out of that if we go to trial ?" "Fifty dollars easy," was the reply. A GARRULOUS fop, who had annoyed by his frivolous remarks his partner in the ballroom, among other empty things, asked whether "she had ever had her ears pierced ?" "No," was the reply," but I've often had them bored!""" A THEOLOGICAL student recently advertised: "A pious young man wishes to obtain a home in a respectable private family, where his moral deportment will be considered an equivalent for his board and lodging. References required." A FEW days ago two persons were heard disputing as to the meaning of the word "lampoon." The one accused the other of never having heard of the word before. "What! Do you think I have never heard of lampooning whales ?" was the reply. A SUNBEAM IN THE HOUSE.-Said he to industrious Margaret: "You are indeed a sunbeam in the house." "Oh, pray don't call me that!" cried she. "Don't! Why not ?" "Because a sunbeam in the house shows up all the dust, but does nothing to clear it away." THAT was a neat compliment paid by a French ambassador in London to a peeress who had been talking to him for an hour. The lady said: "You must think I am very fond of the sound of my own voice." The Frenchman replied: "I knew you liked music." PATERFAMILIAS: "What is included in your curriculum ?" Young Hopeful: "Our what, father?" Paterfamilias: "The curriculum of your class." Young Hopeful: ""Well, to speak the truth, I don't know. You see, being the stroke-oar, I have not much time for botany." FIRST HERE.-Not long since, a certain noble peer in Yorkshire, England, who is fond of boasting of his Norman descent, thus addressed one of his tenants, who, he thought, was not speaking to him with proper respect: "Do you not know that my ancestors came over with William the Conqueror ?" " And, mayhap," retorted the sturdy Saxon, nothing daunted, "they found mine here when they comed." The noble lord felt that he had the worst of it. CONSUMPTION CURED. AN old physician, retired from practice, having had placed in his hands by an East India missionary the formula of a simple vegetable remedy for the speedy and permanent cure of Consumption, Bronchitis, Catarrh, Asthma, and all Throat and Lung Affections, also a positive and radical cure for Nervous Debility and all Nervous Complaints, having tested its wonderful curative powers in thousands of cases, has felt it his duty to make it known to his suffering fellows. Actuated by this motive and a desire to relieve human suffering, I will send free of charge to all who desire it, this recipe in German, French or English, with full directions for preparing and using. Sent by mail by addressing with stamp, naming this paper, W. A. NOYES, 149 Power's Block, Rochester, N.Y. SEND your address on a postal-card for 100-page Book on the Liver. DR. SANFORD, 24 Duane Street, New York City. |
