72 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



Striped Maple ; A. Pennsylvanicum. — This 

 pretty tree is seldom seen more than 12 feet in 

 height, yet it occasionally measures twice that 

 figure. In Maine it is called Moose Wood, the 

 bark and tender branches being the favorite 

 food of the Moose. The bark is beautifully 

 striped with green and brown. The leaves are 

 successfully applied to inflamed wounds and 

 bruises but no use has been made of the wood. 



Stag Horn Sumach ; Rhus typhina. — This 

 tall shrub sometimes rises to the height of 25 

 feet and thus becomes a small tree. It is con- 

 spicuous in the autumn by its bright red clus- 

 ters of fruit, and its leaves of varied and bril- 

 liant hues. The leaves and bark are used in 

 tanning, and the root has been found efficacious 

 in fevers. 



Basswood ; Tilla Americana. — This tree 

 standing alone forms a beautiful and striking 

 object in the landscape, from its regular conical 

 outline and its rich masses of foliage. Its wood 

 is soft and white, and of a fine close grain. It 

 is much used for the panels of carriages and 

 wagons, for bottoms and sides of drawers, for 

 broom handles, and where pine is scarce, as a 

 substitute for that in inside finishing work. It is 

 also carved into bowls and toys, and its char- 

 coal is by no means inferior. 



A GENERAL DELUGE. 



BY G. W. BROWN, M.D. 

 (From Our Home, and Science Gossip.) 

 A tradition prevails among all nations that 

 a general deluge has inundated the world, and 

 that the globe has been peopled from the east. 

 Without regard to the sacred writings of 

 different nations, let us see if there is any 

 probable foundation on which to predicate an 

 opinion that a universal flood has swept over 

 the earth, and destroyed all life which it con- 

 tained, save such as was preserved in some 

 miraculous manner for the perpetualion of the 

 species. 



It is well known to geologists that continents 

 and islands have been frequently submerged 

 by the ocean, and have as frequently emerged 

 from their watery beds. It is on such a hypo- 

 thesis alone we can account for the immense 

 lime formations, with their fossil remains, 

 lines of stratification, and other evidences of 

 aqueous formation, extending over almost 

 limitless regions. 



The microscope reveals the fact that all our 

 native coals, even anthracite and cannal, have 

 a ligneous origin. They are the products of 

 the immense vegetable growths of the car- 



boniferous period, when the earth and tem- 

 perature were especially adapted to the pro- 

 duction of this form of life. By some mighty 

 convulsion the continent on which they had 

 grown sank below the sea level ; the waters 

 rolled over them with great force, prostrating 

 the dense verdure. Each succeeding wave 

 brought a fresh deposit of debris, which buried 

 it deeper and still deeper beneath the ocean 

 bed. The phosphate of lime, held in solution 

 by the higher temperature of that era was 

 precipitated by its reduction, in which are now 

 found the fossilized remains of the moluscan 

 and crustacean formations, of that era, and 

 adapted to its elevated temperature. 



Again the bed of the ocean was elevated, 

 and became dry land. Another growth of 

 vegetable life followed, to be in turn submerged, 

 as in the preceding instance, and then emer- 

 gencies and depressions' followed each other 

 through long cycles, as numerous as different 

 strata of coal are superposed one above 

 another. The chemical conditions which 

 prevent wood from decomposing under water, 

 deprived of the oxygen of the atmosphere, to 

 which were added immense pressure, effected 

 its transformation into coal. 



Volcanic eruptions, more grand and terrific 

 than anything we have any conception of, in 

 consequence of the then comparative thinness 

 of the earth's crust, the interior heat of the 

 molten mass beneath, and the denser atmos- 

 phere surrounding it, made the depressions 

 and upheavals more frequent than through 

 subsequent periods. 



When the temperature of the surface was 

 sufficiently reduced to admit of it, evidenced 

 by their fossilized remains in the rocks, the 

 earth was peopled with higher and higher 

 forms of life, each emerging from lower forms, 

 until, lastly, man appeared. Through the 

 long and almost interminable ages that follow- 

 ed, his successors spread over continents and 

 islands. Each was populated with such orders 

 of life as was best adapted to its peculiar 

 climate and productions. Thus animal life 

 was adapted to the surrounding conditions, 

 not the conditions to the needs of the animal, 

 for it was of a later creation. 



Those immense bodies of land, now covered 

 by the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, 

 sometime in the very remote past, were con- 

 tinents. At the same time much, and perhaps 

 nearly all the continents of Asia, Africa, 

 Europe and America, formed the beds of 

 cotemperaneous oceans. 



(to be continued.) 



