828 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 1, 1883. 



ing tlie bluffs, although excavations for this purpose 

 were made at all of the bridges, in the river's bed, 

 from sixty to more than one hundred feet deep. Con- 

 sequently, some of the piers — in each instance, those most 

 remote from the blufl's — rest on piles driven into the loose, 

 erratic material which fills the old channel up to the river's 

 present bed. These facts would seem to indicate that the 

 old gorge of the river extended from bluff to bluff, and 

 sloped, with more or less regularity, downward from the 

 bluff on either side, toward the centre of the valley. It 

 required a great lapse of time for the river to cut out such 

 a channel, and long ages must have transpired between the 

 close of the Tertiary era and the full inauguration of the 

 Glacial epoch, between which events this work of attrition 

 was done. 



To comprehend this clearly, we must imagine a rock- 

 bound canyon of variable width, cut through the carboni- 

 ferous strata between the bluffs on either side of the river, 

 to a depth of 500 feet or more, below the present bed, at 

 the bottom of which the river was dashed in wild con- 

 fusion ; then we must conceive of vast rivers of ice, 

 creeping down from the north, laden with great streams of 

 stones and sand, to be emptied into the canyon, in quan- 

 tities sufficient to fill and completely dam it up in many 

 places ; but, at the same time, it must be borne in mind 

 that at the interval the glaciers reached the Missouri river 

 the volume of water was greatly diminished in it, in conse- 

 quence of the congelation of the snow and rainfall over all 

 the country north of the 40° of north latitude. 



The Glacial period is distinguished by its wide-spread 

 distribution of erratic rocks over all the country north of 

 the 40° of north latitude. It has but few fossil remains, 

 and those, mostly of life which preceded it. 



The Champlain epoch next followed, and was, in every 

 ■way, in strong contrast with the Glacial period. 



Most of the country along the Missouri River, which, 

 during the Glacial time, had been elevated above the present 

 level, in the Champlain era was sunk below it. Instead 

 of intense cold, the climate was warmer than we now enjoy. 

 Instead of vast fields of moving ice, still lakes prevailed 

 along the Missouri River, coextensive with the Loess for- 

 mation now bordering it. Instead of an arctic waste, life 

 teemed in the water and upon the land. The lakes were 

 filled with fish, and the land abounded with animals. 

 Among the animals the elephant and the mastodon browsed 

 among the hills and valleys. The horse, much larger than 

 the living species, the ox, and the bison grazed on the 

 plains. A gigantic beaver, and animals of the sloth tribe, 

 much larger than the moderns, prevailed. Among the 

 carnivores there were bears, lions, and a species of racoon ; 

 and last, though not least, we have a glimpse of man 

 playing a part for supremacy in this remote era. The 

 remains of several of these animals have been found im- 

 bedded in the Loess deposits about Kansas City. This era 

 is distinguished for its great deposits of brick clay, or Loess, 

 its terrace formations, its gigantic mammals which have 

 become extinct, and for the great number of its mollusks, 

 which are identical with living species. Next, the era of 

 mind was ushered in, and is still slowly fulfilling its promise 

 of a higher destiny. — luuisas City Eeview. 



Teleoraphy in China.— The establishment of a tele- 

 graph line was recently authorised between Shanghai and 

 Tientsin. This line is now to be extended to Pekin. 

 Telegrams are to be forwarded in French or English. Two 

 mandarins have been appointed to keep a rigid surveillance 

 over all telegrams, so that they may not in any way com- 

 promise the security of the State. 



GEOLOGY AMONG THE COLLIERS. 



ON page .311, col. 1, of last week's Knowledge is a 

 quotation from the late Mr. J. Beete Jukes, which 

 expresses an error into which many other eminent geologists 

 have fallen — viz., that of supposing working colliers to be 

 far more ignorant than they really are. 



My own experience among them indicates that no average 

 " practical man " of that class would make the mistake 

 there described. 



These practical colliers, especially " sinkers " of middle 

 age and upwards, usually have a remarkably sound and 

 intimateknowledgeof the stratigraphical and pal:« ontological 

 characters of the coal-measures, though ignorant of the 

 names of the most familiar fossils; and I can hardly under- 

 stand the possibility of such men sinking "in black shales 

 and slates in the lower rocks, far below the coal measures," 

 without knowing that the coal was " up in the sky," to 

 quote an expression I heard used l)y an old Welsh collier 

 to a speculative gentleman who proposed to sink a pit for 

 cannel not far from jSIr. Gladstone's country residence at 

 Harwarden. 



The only geological book-lore of this old man was that 

 contained in Genesis ; yet, in spite of the fact that we were 

 surrounded on three sides by the pit-heads and engine 

 shafts of working collieries, and that the farmer who was 

 with us had several times turned up with the plough large 

 lumps of camel in the field on which we stood, the 

 collier firmly denied the possibility of finding any 

 below us. 



He did so for the same reason that would have led 

 Mr. Jukes to the like conclusion — viz., that we were stand- 

 ing over the Millstone grit, which his illiterate forefathers 

 had named the " Farewell Rock," before modern geology 

 existed as an acknowledged science. They so named it 

 because they all knew that it lies below the coal-measures, 

 and whenever it is reached in sinking they must bid fare- 

 well to coal-seams. 



This terminus and all the strata above it, as they 

 occur in particular districts, are as well known to the 

 sinkers of each district as the stations on the Metropolitan 

 Railway are known to born and bred cockneys. 



Still, it is quite true, as Mr. Jukes says, that pits are 

 sometimes sunk " deep into the Silui'ian shales," but 

 under whose instigation and direction 1 Not those of 

 working colliers, but of company-floating sharemongers, or 

 wild speculators maddened by money-greed. With either 

 of such masters the poor sinker dare not speak ; the 

 utterance of truth would infuriate the latter and convict 

 the former, in either case bringing about the dismissal and 

 persecution of the intermeddling truth-speaker. 



Some sad cases of such persecution came under my own 

 notice during the few years that I was engaged in caimel 

 distilling and pit-sinking in Flintshire. I was able to 

 rescue and employ in very responsible work one man who 

 had suffered much from speaking undemanded truth to his 

 employers, and was well repaid hy the advantages which 

 his fidelity, and sound, though unlettered, geological know- 

 ledge afforded me. 



I must not be tempted into further personal details, but 

 conclude by stating generally that Viy listening patiently 

 to these men with willingness to be instructed by them I 

 learned a great deal, and formed a much higher opinion of 

 the intelligence and the moral worth of working colliers 

 than is commonly entertained by those who judge them 

 superficially by their black faces and rude speech. 



I will just mention one incident for the instruction of 

 those who regard them as rough and brutal. A friend w£is 

 visiting at my house, "The Celyn," near Caergwrle, and on 



