262 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



sand, provided no change of circumstances either exposes 

 it to decay or calls its vital properties into activity. Hence, 

 where seeds have been buried deep in the earth, not by hu- 

 man agency, but by some geological change, it is impossi- 

 ble to say how long anteriorly to the creation of man they 

 may have been produced and buried, as in the folio wing- 

 curious instance : Some well-diggers in a town on the Pe- 

 nobscot River, in the State of Maine, about forty miles from 

 the sea, came, at a depth of about twenty feet, upon a stra- 

 tum of sand. This strongly excited their curiosity and in- 

 terest, from the circumstance that no similar sand was to 

 be found any where in the neighborhood, and that none 

 like it was nearer than the sea-beach. As it was drawn 

 up from the well it was placed in a pile by itself, an un- 

 willingness having been felt to mix it with the stones and 

 gravel which were also drawn up. But when the work 

 was about to be finished, and the pile of stones and gravel 

 to be removed, it was necessary also to remove the sand- 

 heap. This, therefore, was scattered about the spot on 

 which it had been formed, and was for some time scarcely 

 remembered. In a year or two, however, it was perceived 

 that a number of small trees had sprung from the ground 

 over which the heap of sand had been strewn. These trees 

 became, in their turn, objects of strong interest, and care 

 was taken that no injury should come to them. At length 

 it was ascertained that they were Beach-plum-trees ; and 

 they actually bore the Beach-plum, which had never been 

 seen except immediately upon the sea -shore. The trees 

 had therefore sprung from seeds which were in the stra- 

 tum of sea-sand that had been pierced by the well -dig- 

 gers." It can not be doubted, as Carpenter concludes, 

 that the seeds of the Beach-plum had lain buried since the 

 remote period when that part of the state was the shore 

 of the slowly-receding sea. 



