Natural Science News. 



VOL. I 



ALBION, N. Y., JUNE 22, 1895. 



No. 21 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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 tions to FRANK H. LATTIN, 

 Albion, Orleans Co., N. Y, 



Entered at Albion P. O. as 2nd class mail matter 



Receipt for Cement for gum- 

 ming LABELS TO MINERALS AND 



Shells. — Pulverized gum Arabic, 

 4 ounces: pulverized white sugar, 

 2 ounces; starch, 4 drachms. 



Dissolve all separately in as little 

 water as convenient. Dissolve 

 starch in cold water, then stir it in- 

 to sugar water, and then that mix- 

 ture into the gum water. Boil with 

 great care, as burning will spoil the 

 whole. It is well to use a tin ves- 

 sel raised from the bottom of anoth- 

 er vessel containing water. 



After the starch ceases to make 

 the mixture look milky it is cooked, 

 but at least an hour's time will be 

 required. 



Keep in large mouthed tightly 

 corked bottles, or when done pour 

 into a tray covered with strong pa- 

 per, spreading it evenly over the 

 paper, allow to dry; when dry 

 enough, moisten back of paper and 

 remove it from the gum, dry again 

 thoroughly, break into fragments 

 and preserve for use in a wide mouth 

 stoppered jar. — Random Notes. 



New Jersey's Sunken Forest. 



The following clipping was pub- 

 lished in a state paper some time 

 ago: 



"There is a sunken forest of 

 white cedar in New Jersey which 

 has been continuously 'mined' for 

 its valuable timber for over 80 

 years. The curious industry of 

 digging for the sunken logs is car- 

 ried on by the people of Dennis- 

 ville, Cape May county, a village 

 which was brought into existence 

 solely through the wealth of the 

 buried timber in its vicinity. Over 



the sunken forest, trees of large 

 size are growing, and in many in- 

 stances these are cut away in order 

 to get at the more valuable timber, 

 which lies only three or four feet 

 below the surface. All the sunk- 

 en trees are of enormous size, two 

 to five times larger than those now 

 growing on the surface. The ex- 

 act age at which they lived is a 

 matter of curious conjecture. It 

 is probable that they were buried 

 many centuries ago by the action 

 of an earthquake." 



In reading an article of this de- 

 scription one is apt to pass it as 

 fallacious. I want to certify to 

 what I have seen of the sunken 

 forest. 



When I was in my teens my 

 grandfather came in possession of 

 a tract of cedar swamp, several 

 miles from home; not at Dennis- 

 ville, though, but perhaps forty 

 miles to the north-west, on a 

 branch of the Maurice river known 

 as Beaver Dam Creek, which cross- 

 ed the tract in a crooked, diagonal 

 direction. 



He took a surveyor, and his sons, 

 and divided it into five tracts, and 

 sold these divisions to his children. 

 These brothers and sisters, with 

 some of their children, would 

 make annual visits to the swamp 

 to see how it was coming on, and 

 we would have a regular picnic 

 traipsing through the almost per- 

 fectly straight trees, admiring their 

 beauty, hunting teaberries and 

 cranberries (if at that season), 

 crossing the creek on fallen timber 

 or jumping from stump to stump, 

 and quenching our thirst from the 

 clear, cool, wholesome water. One 

 of the duties of the fathers was to 

 re-open the lines made by the sur- 

 veying when it was run out. 



The cedar (white) timber was, 

 in most places, very tall, and in 

 some places it stood so close that 

 it was with difficulty that we could 

 squeeze through. We had glor- 

 ious times cutting and barking the 

 timber, the latter being the boys' 

 duty when they were not wander- 

 ing around hunting new fields or 

 going to a certain 'spring for a 

 drink. And did not the exercise 

 and the pure uncontaminated ce- 

 dar air give us appetites, though? 

 The timber was sawed into inch 

 boards for siding, into singles, and 

 cut into rails, stakes and posts for 

 fences; also ladder and marking- 

 out poles; and we boys got lots of 

 cow gads. 



In our trips there we got ac- 

 quainted with "swamp rats" — 

 men who worked and almost lived 

 in the swamps. Many of them 

 made a business of getting out 

 sunken timber, buried beneath the 

 timber that we were after, which 

 was growing and feeding on that 

 below the surface. These logs 

 were in a horizontal position and 

 very easily traced along the sur- 

 face by a slignt mound. The men 

 after finding one that they thought 

 would pay to work, would cut and 

 dig out the moss and roots grow- 

 ing above, saw off the log in about 

 two foot lengths, pry up and roll 

 out and split into shingles, mostly 

 about six inches wide. The heart 

 of this timber was mostly perfect- 

 ly sound and made the best of 

 shingles, very straight grained, 

 and commanded the highest price 

 in the market. 



The timber growing above the 

 sunken forest ranged in size from 

 very small to about one foot 

 through. At one place I remem- 

 ber one gnarled, rough old trunk 

 leaning across the creek that no 

 doubt belonged to the generation 

 or its sunken brothers, and had by 

 some means escaped the fate of 

 them, There were on one corner 

 of father's tract fourteen very large 

 old yellow pine trees. They, too, 

 undoubtedly belonged to the gen- 

 eration of the fallen. The cedar 

 swamps are found along both sides 

 of the creeks and branches. In 

 my opinion the sunken forest was 

 destroyed at a recent period, 

 whether by earthquake or tornado 

 is only conjecture. I think the 

 latter. There was apparently no 

 trace of sunken timber outside the 

 swamp. 



Is it not reasonable to suppose 

 that a tornado had swept through 

 here and the timber in the swamp 

 not being firmly rooted was easily 

 leveled to the surface, and in the 

 course of years, being flooded by 

 water and overgrown by moss, was 

 made the seed bed of the present 

 growth of trees, the seed of which 

 was carried thither by wind, water 

 and birds. 



Before leaving the subject I will 

 state that across the swamp were 

 well defined traces of an ancient 

 dam, which no doubt was the 

 work of that industrious, and now, 

 in that region, extinct animal, the 

 beaver. 



S. M. Edwards, 

 Argusville, N. D. 



