Forests 

 Forms 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



As the boles of some of these trees are from 

 two to three feet in diameter, it is no less 

 clear that the dry land thus formed re- 

 mained in the same condition for long ages. 

 And not only do the remains of stately 

 oaks and well-grown firs testify to the du- 

 ration of this condition of things, but ad- 

 ditional evidence to the same effect is 

 afforded by the abundant remains of ele- 

 phants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and 

 other great wild beasts. HUXLEY Lay Ser- 

 mons, serm. 9, p. 193. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



1308. FORESTS BURIED UNDER ICE 



Return after Centuries to the Sunlight. 

 The glacier, now in its full strength, ad- 

 vances from the extremity of the valley that 

 sheltered its youth and guided its early life, 

 and invades the piedmont plain. The low 

 lands are densely forested. Majestic spruce- 

 trees and aged moss-covered hemlocks stand 

 in thick, serrate ranks across the glacier's 

 path, but are mowed down as easily as the 

 grass before a scythe. Crushed, broken, and 

 splintered, the trunks are piled in huge con- 

 fused heaps and overriden and buried by the 

 slow but resistless march of the ice. Where 

 the waters flowing from the glacier are 

 abundantly loaded with sand and gravel, 

 they build alluvial deposits about its mar- 

 gin. The streams in their passage over 

 these alluvial cones subdivide and send off 

 distributaries into the forest to the right 

 and left, and the trees are surrounded and 

 buried by sand and gravel while yet stand- 

 ing. A fringe of dead trees, in part denuded 

 of their branches, marks the areas where 

 the stream-borne deposits have made recent 

 conquests. Under these conditions the gla- 

 cier advances over the buried forests, and 

 all vestiges of its existence are blotted out. 

 Centuries later the still erect trunks may 

 be revealed [as now at Muir Glacier, Alas- 

 ka]. RUSSELL Glaciers of North America, 

 ch. 10, p. 199. (G. & Co., 1897.) 



1309. FORESTS BURIED UNDER 

 STRATA Gradual Subsidence of Earth's 

 Crust. The supposition of a gradual sub- 

 sidence over large areas is by no means im- 

 probable. We have the clearest proof that 

 a movement of this kind is possible, in the 

 upright trees buried under strata many 

 thousand feet in thickness; we have also 

 everyreason for believing that there are now 

 large areas gradually sinking, in the same 

 manner as others are rising. And when 

 we consider how many parts of the surface 

 of the globe have been elevated within re- 

 cent geological periods, we must admit that 

 there have been subsidences on a corre- 

 sponding scale, for otherwise the whole 

 globe would have swollen. It is very re- 

 markable that Sir C. Lyell, even in the first 

 edition of his " Principles of Geology," in- 

 ferred that the amount of subsidence in- the 

 Pacific must have exceeded that of eleva- 

 tion, from the area of land being very small 

 relatively to the agents there tending to 



form it, namely the growth of coral and 

 volcanic action. DARWIN Coral Reefs, ch. 

 5, p. 128. (A., 1900.) 



131O. FORGETFULNESS, HUMAN 



Changes in Earth Unrecorded A Moslem 

 Parable. A manuscript work, entitled the 

 " Wonders of Nature," is preserved in the 

 Royal Library at Paris, by an Arabian wri- 

 ter, Mohammed Kazwini, who flourished in 

 the seventh century of the Hegira, or at 

 the close of the thirteenth century of our 

 era. Besides several curious remarks on 

 aerolites, earthquakes, and the successive 

 changes of position which the land and sea 

 have undergone, we meet with the following 

 beautiful passage which is given as the nar- 

 rative of Kidhz, an allegorical personage: 

 " I passed one day by a very ancient and 

 wonderfully populous city, and asked one of 

 its inhabitants how long it had been found- 

 ed. ' It is indeed a mighty city,' replied he; 

 ' we know not how long it has existed, and 

 our ancestors were on this subject as igno- 

 rant as ourselves.' Five centuries after- 

 wards, as I passed by the same place, I 

 could not perceive the slightest vestige of 

 the city. I demanded of a peasant, who was 

 gathering herbs upon its former site, how 

 long it had been destroyed. ' In sooth a 

 strange question!' replied he. 'The ground 

 here has never been different from what 

 you now behold it.' * Was there not of old,' 

 said I, * a splendid city here ? ' * Never,' an- 

 swered he, ' so far as we have seen, and 

 never did our fathers speak to us of any 

 such.' On my return there, 500 years after- 

 wards, I found the sea in the same place, 

 and on its shores were a party of fisher- 

 men, of whom I inquired how long the land 

 had been covered by the waters. ' Is this a 

 question,' said they, * for a man like you ? 

 This spot has always been what it is now.' 

 I again returned 500 years afterwards, and 

 the sea had disappeared; I inquired of a 

 man who stood alone upon the spot, how* 

 long ago this change had taken place, and 

 he gave me the same answer as I had re- 

 ceived before. Lastly, on coming back again 

 after an equal lapse of time, I found there 

 a flourishing city, more populous and more 

 rich in beautiful buildings than the city 

 I had seen the first time, and when I would 

 fain have informed myself concerning its 

 origin, the inhabitants answered me, ' Its 

 rise is lost in remote antiquity; w r e are ig- 

 norant how long it has existed, and our 

 fathers were on this subject as ignorant as 

 ourselves.' " LYELL Principles of Geology, 

 bk. i, ch. 3, p. 19. (A., 1854.) 



1311. FORMATION OF ROCKS IN THE 

 PRESENT ERA Nature Seen at Work. 

 Some of the springs which issue from the 

 ichthyolite beds along the shores of the 

 Moray Frith are largely charged, not with 

 iron, . . . but with carbonate of lime. 

 When employed for domestic purposes, they 

 choke up, in a few years, with a stony dep- 

 osition, the spouts of tea-kettles. On a 



