58 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
A 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 crjqatrogamic 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 are 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 series 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. Steinhauer, speaking of the 
epidermal , cortical, and ligneous appearance of the Phy- 
tolithus cancellutus, 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 sulphuret, 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 
