58 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



Ji Fossil Plant. 



I have already noticed that our village stands on the 

 precipitous slope of a very lofty hill, at the foot of which 

 our sluggish creek pursues a circuitous course towards the 

 Ohio river. In its way, this stream fertilizes some rich 

 but not very extensive meadow land. A few miles to the 

 north-west of the town there is quite an extensive patch of 

 low ground, not far from the creek. One of the farmers, 

 a short time since, on this tract, discovered, while plough- 

 ing, a curious stone, carved in a very strange manner, as 

 he supposed, by the old Indians. Expressing a great de- 

 sire to see it, being at the time occupied with the Indian 

 antiquities of the west, he brought me, in a few days, the 

 carved stone. I instantly perceived that the figures upon 

 it were not the work of human hands, but were the im- 

 pressions of vegetable reliquiae This fossil vegetable im- 

 pression is in sand stone, and in the beauty and regularity 

 of its configurations, is not very unlike some of the orna- 

 ments of ancient architecture. It is no doubt the remains 

 of a vascular cryptrogamic plant, and belongs to the genus 

 lepidodendron, or lycopodium. These gigantic reliques 

 of ancient vegetation are very abundant in the sand stone 

 of the valley of the Mississippi, which accompanies the 

 coal, and are thought by geologists to be coeval with the 

 consolidation of our coal strata. I have seen a large num- 

 ber of these fossils, many of which were of an enormous 

 size. Most of these stupendous fossil stems are not circu- 

 lar, like our present race of plants, but are of an ovate 

 form, as if they had been compressed during the process 

 of petrifaction. How these stems arc flattened by the 

 pressure of the superincumbent weight, I think has not yet 

 been satisfactorily explained. But I will not at this time 

 enumerate the objections which occur. Other difficulties, 

 with regard to settling the species, have lately been pre- 

 sented by Mr. Lukis, an able physiological botanist, and 

 which have deterred me from giving a specific name to the 

 fossil plant found in our neighbourhood. That gentleman 

 has ascertained, by a scries of observations, made on the 

 drying and shrivelling of certain succulent plants, most 

 analogous to fossil species, that a great variety of patterns 

 or configurations may be produced, in a single individual, 

 during the process of its drying and decomposition. If, 

 therefore, fossil plants have undergone similar changes be- 

 fore or in the process of mineralization, it is evident that 

 the same species will often appear under different aspects. 

 It was before remarked by Mr. Stcinhauer, speaking of the 

 epidermal, cortical, and ligneous appearance of the Phy- 

 tolithus cuncellalus, that the first or epidermal configura- 

 tion is formed of rhombs, giving it a net-work appearance; 



that the cortical figure differed essentially from this, and 

 that in its ligneous aspect the rhombs were entirely lost. 



Our Springs. 



Our village, and its vicinity, abounds with springs of 

 water. In a country where salt and coal are so frequent, a 

 great variety of what are called mineral springs might be 

 expected to exist. It is well known that the ingredients 

 found in mineral waters, are commonly derived from the 

 soil, or owe their properties to the rocks through which 

 they flow; the water, by dissolving the soluble salts which 

 it meets with in its passage, thus frequently acquires pe- 

 culiar and highly important characters. There is no 

 spring yet discovered in our neighbourhood, which can 

 be distinguished for its great medical virtues. The most 

 remarkable is, perhaps, a copious fountain of sulphurous 

 water, near the bank of the creek, about half a mile west 

 of the town. The well from which it is procured, is exca- 

 vated in a shaley lime-stone rock, in the strata of which 

 thin seams of bituminous coal are visible. The presence 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen is readily noticed by its odour, 

 as the water is pumped from the well; a few drops of the 

 acetate of lead also indicated the same gas. A piece of 

 silver was covered with a film of the sulphurct, when left 

 for a short time in a tumbler of the water. Iron was as- 

 certained to be an ingredient by the juice of the oak leaf. 

 With the oxalic acid, and with the nitrate of silver, I ob- 

 tained but slight precipitates, and therefore conclude that 

 the water contains little lime, and but a trace of some mu- 

 riatic salt. Sulphur and iron are no doubt the principal 

 solid ingredients contained in this spring. It has been 

 thought beneficial in slight cutaneous diseases, but except 

 as a means of cleanliness, it probably possesses no very im- 

 portant properties as a discutant. Most of our religious 

 societies among the scattered population of the great west, 

 have their houses of worship in the woods, an artificial 

 well, or a natural spring of water being always at hand, 

 for the use of the people during the intervals of their pub- 

 lic services. The well just noticed is one of this descrip- 

 tion. As the mouth of it is uncovered, and the water 

 used but sparingly except once a week, it is commonly of 

 a black colour, owing no doubt to the leaves of the forest 

 falling into the well, and forming, with the iron, a kind of 

 ink, or in chemical language, a gallate of iron. 



All the springs and wells in our village contain large 

 quantities of lime-stone, which is precipitated when the 

 water is boiled, the free carbonic acid which is always 

 present, and by which it is dissolved, being expelled by 

 the heat. In some neighbouring towns, where the steam 



