77 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



among the most remarkable facts lately added to 

 the science of geognosy. 



In the month of November, this year, Colo- 

 nel Von Hammerstein, president of the Provincial 

 Agricultural Society of Uelzen, in the territory of 

 Luneberg, the able author of several prize essays, 

 and the zealous promoter of the agriculture of his 

 native country, had the goodness to send to Pro- 

 fessor Haussmann, two specimens of varieties of 

 earth, which were dug out near Oberohe, during 

 an excavation made by the above mentioned so- 

 ciety, in the district of Ebstorf. The extreme 

 lightness of these varieties of earth rendered it im- 

 probable that they were of an argillaceous nature ; 

 but their state of aggregation did not permit us to 

 conclude that they consisted of pure silica, al- 

 though, notwithstanding this, they really have 

 such a composition, according to the chemical 

 examination, kindly instituted by Dr. Wigners, in 

 the accademical laboratory. The specimen No. 

 1, according to this investigation, is chemicallyj^wre 

 silica. It has, at the same time, a fine, extremely 

 loose, earthy, flaky consistence, and a chalk-white 

 color. It has a soft and meager leeling, some- 

 what like starch, and does not grate between the 

 teeth. On water it swims for a moment, then sinks 

 down, and gradually swells up. Mixed with a 

 little water, it acquires a pasty consistence, with- 

 out being adhesive. The specimen No. 2, is also 

 silica, but contains likevi'ise a very insignificant 

 quantity of a matter destructible by fire. lis Irac- 

 ture is fine-earthy; the color brownish-grey, slight- 

 ly inclining to green, becoming darker by the ad- 

 dition of moisture. It is friable, meager, but soft 

 to the touch, and adheres to the tongue. It swims 

 on water for some minutes, but it afterwards sinks, 

 absorbing water with a noise, giving out many 

 air-bubbles, and then expands gradually by irre- 

 gular splitting of the liminse, without being alto- 

 gether separated. When exposed to heat, it ra- 

 pidly assumed a while color. Here and there it 

 is traversed by veins of pure, chalk-white, fine- 

 earthy silica, filled with smaller or larger cavities. 



According to the information communicated by 

 Col. Von Hammerstein to Professor Hausmann, 

 this silica has been found in astonishing quantity 

 in six different places of the above mentioned dis- 

 trict, on the edge and first acclivity of the great 

 plateau of the Luneberger Haide, covered to the 

 depth of only one foot and a half by the soil. The 

 pure white silica forms the upper bed, and has a 

 thickness of 10 feet to 18 feet. The colored por- 

 tion is beneath, and has been already penetrated 

 to a depth of 10 ftjet, without the lower boundary 

 having been reached. 



The peculiar state of aggregation of this silica, 

 led Professor Hausmann to conjecture that it 

 might be analogous to the Kieselgurh, found in the 

 turf at Franzensbad in Bohemia, and that like that 

 substance, it might be composed of the siliceous 

 shields of infusory animals. A preliminary mi- 

 croscopic examination seemed to confirm this no- 

 tion. In order to attain certainf}- on this subject. 

 Professor Hausmann sent specimens to the distin- 

 guished investigator of the infusory world. Profes- 

 sor Ehrenberg of Berlin, who, by his extraordina- 

 ry discoveries, regarding the occurrence of fossil 

 infusoria, has opened an entirely new field of the 

 most interesting investigations. He requested 

 that naturalist to examine these specimens of earth 

 more minutely, with a special view to these ob- 



jects, and he received, through his kindness, the 

 intelligence, that both earths are entirely composed 

 of beautiful and perfectly preserved infusory cover- 

 ings; that these are very various, but still belong 

 only to known species, and to such as are found 

 in a living state in fresh water at the present day. 

 In the earth No. 1, they are free from foreign mix- 

 ture; but in No. 2, they are mixed with organic 

 slime, and with the pollen of pines. During even 

 his first examination. Professor Ehrenberg suc- 

 ceeded in determining several species of inflisora, 

 whose coverings form this silica, and in ascertain- 

 ing that there occurs, in the lower bed, a species 

 of infusoria found in the polishing slate of Ha- 

 bichtswald and Hungary ; and another peculiar to 

 the Kieselguhr of Bohemia; both of which seem 

 to be entirely wanting in the upper bed : but upon 

 these points we shall defer further remarks, in or- 

 der that we may not anticipate the publication of 

 the completed investigation of Professor Ehren- 

 berg. 



That a mass more than twenty feet in thickness 

 should consist almost entirely of the coverings of 

 animals which are invisible to the naked eye, and 

 which can only be recognized with the assistance 

 of a high magnifying power, is an extraordinary 

 fact, and one which the mind cannot fully compre- 

 hend without some difliculty. The farther we at- 

 tempt to pursue the subject, the more we are as- 

 tonished. That which occurs in an invisible con- 

 dition in the fluid element, and which cannot be 

 recognized by the human senses, without the as- 

 sistance of art, becomes, by immense accumulation 

 and solidification, one of the circle of phenomena, 

 which are witnessed by us in the ordinary way ; 

 a compact mass is formed, which can be weighed, 

 felt, and seen; and this mass is presented to us in 

 such quantity, that, when regarded only in 07Je di- 

 rection, it surpasses by three times the height of 

 the human figure. Who could venture to calcu- 

 late the number of infusory animals, which would 

 be required to produce even one cubic inch of this 

 mass? And, who could venture to determine the 

 number of centuries, during which the accumula- 

 tion of a bed of twenty feet in thickness was tak- 

 ing place? And yet, this mass is only the product 

 of yesterday, compared with the other more com- 

 pact siliceous masses for which the infijsoria of a 

 destroyed creation afforded materials. But what 

 would have become of that loose, light silica — 

 which, by its great porosity, and its power of ab- 

 sorbing water in quantity, in some measure indi- 

 cates its origin — if, instead of being covered by 

 soil one foot and a half in thickness, it had been 

 covered by a great mass of earth or rock ; or, if 

 another power, such as the action of fire, had caus- 

 ed its solidification? In that case, we should have 

 had no bed twenty feet in thickness, but should 

 perhaps have found a compact stony mass, capa- 

 ble of scratching glass, affording sparks with steel, 

 and polifhable, — a substance, which, were it not 

 for the abundant evidence furnished by the disco- 

 veries of Ehrenberg, it would be still more difficult 

 to suppose had resulted from the coverings of in- 

 visible animals. Such a consolidation and hard- 

 ening of this loose silica, might perhaps be partly 

 accomplished in another way, by making the ex- 

 periment of employing it for the manufacture of 

 glass, or as one of the ingredients in porcelain; 

 by which means a discovery so very remarkable, 

 in a natural historical point of view, might at the 



