cience 



VOL. I 



ALBION, N. Y., DECEMBER 23, 1895. 



No. 48 



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 tlie various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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Subscriptions can begin with any number. 



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 Dnused U. S. Postage stamps of any denomina- 

 tion will be accepted for fractional parts of a dol- 

 lar. Make Money Orders and Drafts payable, 

 and address all subscriptions and communica- 

 tions to FRANK II. L \TTIN, 

 Albion, Orleans Co., N. Y, 



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



The Confederate Note. 



Representing nothing on God's earth 

 now, 



And naught in the waters below it, 

 As a pledge of the nation that's dead 

 and gone 



Keep it dear Captain, and show it. 

 Show it to those that will lend an ear, 



Tell the tale this paper can tell 

 Of liberty born, of the patriot's dream, 



Of a storm-cradled nation that fell. 



Too poor to possess the precious ore, 

 And too much a stranger to borrow, 



We issue today our' )l 'promise to pay," 

 And hope to redeem on the morro w. 



Days rolled by and weeks became years, 

 But our coffers were empty still; 



Coin was so rare that the treasurer 

 quakes, 



If a dollar should drop in the till. 



But the faith in us was strong indeed, 

 And our poverty well we discerned, 

 And these little checks represented the 

 pay 



That our suffering veterans earned. 

 We know it had hardly a value in gold, 



Yet as gold the soldiers received it; 

 It gazed in our eyes with a promise to 

 pay 



And each patriot soldier believed it. 



But our boys thought little of price or 

 pay- 

 Or the bills that were over due; 

 We knew if it brought our bread today, 

 'Twas the best our country could do. 

 Keep it! it tells our history over, 

 From the birth of the dream to the 

 last; 



Modest, and born of the angle Hope, 

 Like our hope of success it passed. 



The following lines were found writ- 

 ten upon the back of a Confederate 

 note just after the close of the war. 



A Submerged Forest. 



Many years ago, even so far back 

 that the traditions of the oldest Si- 

 wash extend not thereto, there was 

 some vast upheaval of Mother 



Earth on the shores of Lake Sa- 

 mamish that sent a portion of the 

 Newcastle hills sliding down into 

 the lake, with its tall evergreen for- 

 est intact, and there it is to this 

 da} T . About this time of the year 

 the waters of the lake are at their 

 lowest, and then the tops of the 

 tallest of these big submerged trees 

 are out of the water, but never 

 more than ten or twelve inches. 



Unfortunately for the curiosity 

 seeker and traveling public gener- 

 ally the submerged forest is on the 

 opposite side of the lake from the 

 railroad and the station of Mono- 

 hon, and very few people ever see 

 the phenomenon unless they take 

 the time and pains necessary to 

 reach it. 



Sam Coombs, the pioneer, is 

 very enthusiastic concerning its 

 beauties and mystery. He talks 

 Chinook fluently, but with all his 

 quizzing of the red-skinned inhab- 

 itants he has never learned any- 

 thing that will throw any light on 

 the history of the deep forest un- 

 der water. The waters of the lake 

 are very deep, and the bluffs back 

 of the beach very precipitous, so 

 that the only explanation of the 

 freak is that either by an earth- 

 quake or some other means a great 

 slide has been started in early 

 times, and it went down as a mass 

 until it found lodgment at the 

 bottom of the lake. At this time 

 one can see down into the glassy, 

 mirror-like depths of the lake for 

 thirty feet or more. Near the 

 banks the forest trees are interlac- 

 ed at various angles and in confu- 

 sion, but further out in the deep 

 water they stand straight, erect, and 

 limbless and barkless. ioo feet tall. 

 They are not petrified in the sense 

 of being turned to stone, but they 

 are preserved and appear to have 

 stood there fOr ages. They are 

 three feet through, some of them, 

 and so firm in texture as to 'be 

 scarcely affected by a knife blade. 

 The great slide extended for some 

 distance, and it would now be a 

 dangerous piece of work for a 

 steamer to attempt passage over 

 the tops of those tall trees. Even 

 now the water along shore is very 

 deep, a ten foe': r OxC would sink 

 perpendicularly out of sight ten 

 feet from the shore line. 



All over this country are found 

 strata of blue clay, which in the 

 winter season are very treacherous, 

 and given the least bit of opportu- 

 nity will slide away, carrying every- 



thing above with them. This is 

 the theory of the submerged forest 

 of Lake Samamish. It probably 

 was growing above one of these 

 blue earth strata, and heavy rains, 

 or probably an earthquake, set it 

 moving. The quantity of earth 

 carried down was so great that the 

 positions of the trees on the por- 

 tion carried away were little affect- 

 ed. It is hardly to be believed 

 that the earth suddenly sank down 

 at this point and became a portion 

 of the beautiful lake. 



Few such places exist. There is 

 a place in the famous Tumwater 

 Canon, near Leavenworth, which 

 is in some respects similar. At 

 some early time a portion of the 

 great mountain side came rushing 

 down and buried itself at the bot- 

 tom of the canon. Now there is a 

 considerable lake, and in the cen- 

 ter stand tall, limbless trees, differ- 

 ent in species from those growing 

 along the canon. 



At Green Lake, near George- 

 town, Col. — a lake which is 10,000 

 feet above sea level — is a submerg- 

 ed forest of pine trees, some hun- 

 dred feet tall, but not so numerous 

 as in Lake Samamish. This same 

 theory explains their presence as 

 given above. — Seattle- Times. 



A Grafted Snake. 



According to the San Francisco 

 Chronicle, a Dr. G. A. Country- 

 man, of Mallette, S. D., possesses 

 a combination snake. It is half 

 garter and half sand snake, and 

 the peculiar combination was made 

 possible by a surgical operation 

 performed by the doctor. His at- 

 tention was directed to snakes 

 from observing that when a snake 

 was killed its tail appears to live* 

 until the sun goes down, when life 

 ceases. It is thought by many 

 that this is owing to the nerves, but 

 the doctor was somewhat skeptical 

 on this point. Being a surgeon he 

 dissected several, and made some 

 interesting discoveries. He found 

 that in both the sand and garter 

 snakes the spinal column extended 

 little more than half the length of 

 the body. Knowing that it was 

 possible to graft flesh, this led him 

 to chloroform them and try splic- 

 ing them, making the splice, of 

 course, below the end of the spinal 

 column. 



He made four unsuccessful at- 

 tempts, but succeeded in the fifth. 



