Mother Earth

FACTS KOT TO BR FOUND IN THF COOKS,

Geological investigation has for centuries employed itself in endeavors to ascertain from established facts, what changes this earth has been subjected to, what changes it may yet bo subjected to, and what are the causes of these changes.

Whatever differences of opinion may have arisen, among scientific men, in relation to some of the questions involved in this vast subject, it is notasuming too much to say that the various phenomena which our globe presents to the view, furnish incontestible proof that the whole of the present inhabitable parts of it were at one period buried beneath the waters. Thus, on the summits of tho highest mountains, in the internal parts of con tinents, immense bodies of organized matter —or vast masses of organized bodies—have been found, which it would appear could only have been produced at the bottom of the ocean. In this con nection, the fact is wellknown, for example, that on the heights of some of the loftiest mountains that compose the Andes and the Alps, large masses of calcareous stone are met with, which are evidently formed of the shells of sea fish ; and on others, in the internal parts of flint or quartz quarries, remains of sea weeds and the impressions of fish are found, in so perfect a state, that not only the genus but tho species to which they belong may be easily discerned, as has over and oyer again been made familiar by scientific examination.

From all this it has long been regarded as apparent that the continents now inhabi ted by the human race were once buried beneath the ocean, aud that they owe their present elevated situation either to its retiring or to some internal force raising them above their former situation. The first of these suppositions is held by but a comparatively few persons, and the endeavor has been put forth by inquiring minds to discover some agent in nature powerful enough to project or raise these stupendous masses of matter —and this it has been attempted to determine by inves tigating the operations of nature at present going forward in this direction, observing the changes, if any, taking place, and studying the causes of the same. The most superficial research in this field of inquiry, it may be remarked, discloses two powerful agents everywhere, and at all times in action —the external operations of water, tending to reduce the olevatcd parts of continents to a level with the ocean, and the inlernal action of fire tending to elevate them ; to one or the other of these agents it is common to attribute most of the changes of this character.

Of the power of the external operations of water to reduce tho higher land for mations, sufficient evidence is presented in the immense quantities of earthy matter that are continually carried into the sea by means of rains washing the earth from the declivities of mountains, into rivers, and by them beiner borne into the ocean. Ths hardest rock is incapable of withstanding the combined action of air and water, and must at length crumble away and be carried off by the water. Added to this, the ocean often buries, at once, large tracts of land, and, though the effect of this sudden immersion oflaud is, perhaps, inconsiderable, in comparison with that produced by tho rain gradually washing it into the sea, it is nevertheless beyona all question or doubt that the surface of the earth must, in flic course of accumulated centuries have bcen< onsider ably changed by this course.

It is well known that the space now occupied by the Zuider sea was once part of the fertile and highly-cultivated province of Friesland. Historians relate tho interesting circumstance, in this con nection, that HoTiiAN GrALAMA, a gentle man who possessed a large estate there, one day as he was walking over itperceived a living herring in one of the ditches. As the ditch had no apparent communication with the sea, he concluded that there must be a subterraneous one, and, of, course, supposed the sea had undermined the country. Upon this supposition, and presuming very naturally that the land could not long remain thus suspended on the surface of the Avater, he sold his estate and retired with his family to a place of safety. Not long after this, the event dreaded by him took place, and a large extent of country was at once precipitated to the bottom of the ocean, involving one of the most remarkable transformations in physical nature ever recorded. Vol taire, in his history of philosophy, mentions that, as he vvas sailing to Mardyke, he saw the church steeples of eighteen of the villages which had been buried in the ocean.

On tho effect of internal fires in the elevation of land, some remarkable instances have occurred. An account given by Bourgnon states that on the 12th of May, 1707, a new island sprang up near St. Erini, in the Archipelago. At first a few rocks rose above the surface of the water, so that a number of mariners, who took them for wrecks of vessels, having put off in their direction, were surprised to find that they were in fact a shoal that had come up form the bottom of the sea, and was even then sensibly augmenting under their feet. It continued thus in the process of uprising and expansion, very apparently, from its first appearance until about the middle of June, and this without any noise or dis turbance, although two days preceding its

appearance there had been a considerable earthquake felt all over the island of St. Erini. On the 10th of July, at sunset, a chain of rocks rose from a prodigious depth of the sea ; the next day smoke was observed to break forth, much resembling in thickness and color that of a burning furnace, and, at tho same time, were heard certain rumblings under ground, which seemed tc proceed from tho centre of this new island. The flame accompany ing this rcmakable demonstration in creased daily, and, finally, on the 20th of September, all the various rocks that rose united into one island of some three miles' circumference and forty feet high. One of the islands of the Azores has a history equally interesting, and dates back only about two hundred and fifty years ago. It sprang up from the bottom of the sea, which, in the locality in question, was of the estimated depth of one bundred and sixty fathoms ; and the island, which is three leagues long, one league and a half broad, and three hundred and sixty feet above the level of the water, rose in Fifteen days. Still more reccntlv. namely, on tho 20th of November, 1720, a sub terraneous fire burst out of the sea near Tercera, one of tho Azores, which threw up such a quantity of stones in the space of thirty days that it formed an island two leagues in diameter and nearly circular. Monte Nuovo, which is about 150 feet high and three miles in circum ference, rose from the Lucrine lake by tho force of internal fire, in one night. Many other instances of the volcanic generation of islands might be produced. Thus, the inevitable offects of two such powerful accents united must bo very great. By the repeated descent of pro digiousrains, through successivecenturies, an almost inconceivable quantity of earthy matter is borne into the sea, and as the greater part of it is not held in a state of solution, but only suspended, it must soon be deposited on the bottom of the ocean. By means of the currents of the sea, the matter thus deposited would be thrown together in large masses, and, by the difference of specific gravities, and the affinity of aggregation, substances of tho same nature would unite together and form strata or veins. Thus would the basis of new continents and islands be formed at the bottom of the ocean ; but, according to the theory held by many geological authorities— and which has here been briefly delineated—these could never bo elevated to any considerable height above the level of the water, without the assistance of some internal agent.

As illustrating this subject, the fact may be mentioned—though already familiarly known—that the peaks of Tenenffe, Mont Blanc, Mount Caucasus, the Appenines, the Pryences, tho Alps, the Andes, all exhibit vast accumulations of volcanic and marine substances blended togetber. The catacombs of Rome, it is also known, are hollowed in a sort of puzzolana earth, of a brown violet color, mixed with crystals of schoerl, of the form of garnets, the same as those in the partridge-eyed lava of Naples ; yet in these have been found tho bonrs of whales and other foreign bodies, which present every ap pearance of having been deposited there by the sea, in unknown ages of the paat. Gibraltar is situated on a high and spacious rock, and on its summit have been found masses of bones forming, as it were, one solid and compact substance with the rock—the collection consisting of those of the human species as well as those of both wild and domestic animals, indiscriminate ly commingled ; the matter of which the rock is composed must, consequently, have been brought thither subsequent to the deposition of the bones.

In England, the bonos of a Avhale, the head and horns of a species of deer, which naturalists affirm never existed on that island, and which arc almost doublo the size of any of the same species now to be found, also the tusks af an elephant, have been dug up from great depths. So, too, near the mouth of the La Plata, the bones of an immense animal have been dug up, from a great depth, its genus or species being a profound mystery ; and through out all North America and Siberia, bones of an enormous size have long been found, at a great distance below the surface of the carth —all shoAving that tremendous changes have taken place, at one period or another, or at various periods, in the physical condition of our globe.

A staggering chap who was refused a drink ;it a Johnstown, N. V., hotel, grasped the barkeeper's hand and s:iir) : ' Sir, you have my everlasting gratitude,' and immedi ately took his departure. The Danbury lamplighter has seen men tion of 'Liberty lighting the world,' which 13 to be set up in New York harbor, aud having a wifo and five children naturally feels uneasy. Boilermakers and balloonists are trying to see Avho can send their machines the highest. According to the latest accounts the steam boiler was half a mile ahead. Tho musical mosquito has made his ap pearance for the season, and a general rehab ilitation of the last year's window screens is going up in countlesa households. A characteristic New England advertise ment is this : 'A lady in Olaremont, N.H., of Emersonian thought and sentiment, de sires to secure summer boarders.' Recitation in mineralogy—Professor : 'Mr. H., give some examples of cleavage.' H. : ' Oalcite, feldspar and man. A man will leave his father and mother and cleaA'e unto his Avife.' A Pittsburg Ga/.ette correspondent speaks of ' the great bulk of the inhabitants of New Mexico.' Perhaps Aye have here the reason why it is so difficult for them to squeese into the United States,

"Thieves" London.

Some of our readers may perhaps recollect the publication of a descent by the London police upon that; den (the ' Thieves' Kitchen') some time ago, ia consequence of a development having been made that it was a sort of college, or academy where children were taught the art of theft, and prepared for the degrees of house-breaking and of murder.

Attention h^d been specially attracted to it through the arrest of several juvenile thieves of both sexes, who described how they had been decoyed from their parents into this den by an old scamp —a modern Pagin, and practised in the ways of pilfering, for his profit. In return for their work, he corrupted their appetites for drink, and made them soon unfit for any other sort of life.

When the police made a descent upon this place, they found all the gymnasia of roguery in operation for jevenile tuition, and at the very moment of their entrance, these young pupils for the gallows were practising at the skirts of coats, hung loosely upon clothes lines, in order to earn rewards from their preceptors, for taking a purse or handkerchief from the pockets without shaking the line, or dis turbing the little bells that were attached to the ends of the garments. There were a great number of ex perienced old thieves residing in this den at the time of the descent, as well as children, and indignant at the profanation of this sanctuary of their arts, they gave battle to the invaders, and after a severe contest, succeeded in rescuing some of the children, and in beating the officers off.

A reinforcement of authority was, however, soon obtained, and the den ransacked of its professors and its pupils.

At the time of our visit it was comparatively quiet, and we were received by only five or sis gentlemen of the skirt, who preserved a very quiet demeanour. Though short of their numbers, and reduced in strength, they showed, lioav evcr, that they were conscious of their standing, for they did not condescend to any civility during our stop, and regarded us' all the time with a sort of sullen defiance.

Apple Sauce.

A>- extremely 'down east" Yankee, with a waggon load of ' apple sauce,' was driving through a village not a thousand miles from Boston, when he saw, dandling in the AA'ind, on a post before a tailor's shop, a new OA^ercoat, seductively suspended on a skewer in the shoulders. He drove up to the door, alighted, and went in. 'Be you the boss?' he asked of a pale-faced man, who was making the diagrams with chalk and rule on a piece of flimsy snuff-coloured cloth.

' I be,' said Snip. 'Yes; wol, you've got a family, I'expect? You've got some children, haven't you ? 1 seed a thin boy a whittlin' out door, that looked like you, and I'xpect like as not as you have children.'

' Four on' em ; that was Jerothner, my second, that you see,' was the explanatory reply. ' Yes ; wol, neow, don't yeou want a first-rate bar! of apple sauce? I've sold six bar'ls this morning, and I ain't got but one left. I'll take it out in dicker. I want to git an overcoat ; if youVe a mind to let me have that coat that bangs at tho door, if it will fit me, I'd give you a bar'l of apple sauce for it.'

The schneider, after a little chaffer ing, consented, and the coat Avas brought in and tried on. He said the fit was a miracle. 'It might ha' growed onto him,' so snug did it ' set,' and he verified this phrase by twisting his neck half off, that he might look at his back in the glass standing in the dark at tho back of the shop, and reflecting nothing but what was passing in front. The ' bar'l' was ' dumped,' and the buyer drove off, proud as a turky cock, in his new coat. He alighted at a store to do an ' arrand' for a neighbour, where he encountered a townsman.

' Hello !' exclaimed the latter, ' how slick you do look! Where did you get so much new coat ?' Tho wearer made no reply, but, turning round with an air, asked, ' How does she set ? Ain't she a beauty ? And all I gin fort was a bar'l of apple sauce.' ' A ' be-a-uty !' exclaimed the other; ' why, I never saw any thing so wrinkly ! Pull it down; now let go of it. It don't make no odds, not a bit. It goes right back again ; it puckers dreadfully between the shoulders.' ' Puckers, does it ?' said the chop fallen and mortified buyer; but his face brightened almost to a glow as he added, ' Puckers, .eh ? Wal, if > his mouth don't pucker a darned sight Avorse than this overcoat ever can Avhen he tastes o' that apple sauce, I'll lose my guess! His children Avon't steal none on't more than once, though it's

better a'ter you get down a. little ; there's considerable lot ofshavin's long about out the middle of it.'

An Embarrassment.

At an Hotel in Salt Lake City a man and his wife were stopping. The man was subject to severe attacks of Colic, and was taken sick there in the night;. He told his wife he must have immediate relief, or he could not live, he thought a mustard plaster would relieve him. She hastily robed herself, went down stairs, and spread the mus tard from the castor on her handker chief, and hastened up stairs. Finding the bed-room door ajar, she rushed in, and clapped the preparation^ on the unconscious man's bowels. He instantly sprang up in the bed and a strange voice said. 'My God Madam, What are you doing ?' She had got the wrono- man. We leave the reader to ima-ine her feelings. She found her own"room, and in accents of horror told her husband of the facts. _ The extreme ludicrousness of the incident sent him into a strong fit of laughter that relieved him as thoroughly as the mustard Avould have done. Very early next morning, before many of the guests were up, a man, woman, trunk, band-boxes etc, etc, might have been seen leaving the Hotel; for the womans name was on the handkerchief.

A Woman's Wit.

THE SATING GRACES OF A BIT OF COURT.

PLASTER.

A gentleman not unconnected with the Boston press was at St. Louis recently, and while there confided to a friend the details of an adventure in a Boston hotel, so remarkable as to deserve a life in print. The story is brief, but with an immense moral, as showing hoAV, in some things, lovely woman will always come to the relief of a sister in distress, to outwit the tyrant man. The journalist above re ferred to, stopping at the hotel, a private one, where the guests were accustomed to the entire freedom of the house, felt, late one night, the imperative necessity of eating some fruit before retiring. It was too late to send out to buy any, he did not want to arouse the servants of the house at so late an hour, and yet fruit or preserves or something toothsome of the kind seemed to him a personal necessity. He knew where the store room was, knew that the door was ieft open, and finally resolved to go doAvn quietly and prig enough sweetmeats to satisfy his need. No sooner was the thought conceived than acted upon, and, within five minutes he was in the store-room, hooking preserves out of a jar, and enjoying himself intensely in satisfying the craving which had come upon him. For a few minutes the enjoyment of the man at the preserves was com plete. Then, he was startled by a light, swift step in the hall, there was a Avliish and rustle of garments, the door opened suddenly, and some one bounded in with such suddenness as, coming squarely against the form of the midnight raider, to knock him half way across the room, and fairly off his feet. Leaping up at once he closed with his unconscious assailant, to be startled by a subdued shriek, and to find that he had captured a woman! Further, and more terrible still, he discovered that the plump form of the lady who had wanted some thing to eat as well as he, was clad only in a night-dress. Still, though trymg, the occasion was one not of unmixed horror by any means, and iv a moment the gentleman's nerve returned and his curiosity rose to fever heat.

' Who is this ? 'he demanded of the plump figure in his arms. No answer. ' Who°is it ? ' he repeated. ' You'll not get out of this until you tell.' Still no answer, but a struggle in the darkness, the plump figure trying hard to get away. Again the query was repeated, with equal lack of responce, but this time a resounding slap ' in the face from a hand that Avas doubtless pretty, but which hit Avith decided force, was the reward of the questioner. He was put on his mettle at once. ' You think you'll get off unknown 1 We'll see about that!' he exclaimed. ' I've a device that'll work, I think. And then after a silent but determined struggle, he caught a bit of the lady's right cheek between his teeth and bit it! —not badly so as to break the velvety skin, but sufficiently hard to leave a mark which he kneAv could not disapear for a day or two. Then he released his unknown prisoner, and she fled like the wind along the passage,

liaappearmg in some room impossibV to locate in the darkness. The next morning the geidema ' with a mystery to solve came dowim breakfast early. No ladies had w appeared, but at his table were o&eot' two intim&te male friends, and to then lie confided the story of his adventut in the night, relating also the m^J he had taken to secure the identify tionofthe unknown lady. The most! intense curiosity ai once prevailed a* the table, and the advent of the ladig was awaited with an impatient scarcely to be controlled. Rye utes later the door opened and til belle of the hotel entered demurely glided across the room and seated herself for breakfast. Bager eyes' followed her,i|and as her face was fairly exposed there was a sensation amor the gentlemen. Upon her right cheek was a strip of court plaster an imj long! The excited men exchangers glances and whispers and smilej, The mystery was solved early. But just then another lady entered this time a dignified matron. As she seated herself there was disclosed on her right cheek a piece of court-plastg identicle in appearance with that or the face of the belle ! Another and* another lady entered. Upon the right cheek of every one of them appeared a piece of court-plaster. The tables filled up and not a lady at '^oae oi them but wore court-plaster on the right cheek ! And then the gentlemen! lookingjconfidently for a revelation wilt ed. They comprehended the situation, The lady "who had been captured inthe night, had confided her extremity to her friends, and they had come to the! rescue to outwit male humanity, They had succeeded, too. discomfited men at that particular table knew that beneath one of the many piece! of court-plaster in the room weret hidden the marks of teeth, but which was the identical piece of court-plaster they could not tell. And they never learned. ,

Varieties.

Duty is far more than love. It 1b the upholding law through which the weakest; become strong, without which all strength ij« unstable as water. No character, howeYef harmoniously framed and gloriously gifted, can be complete without this abiding principle : it is the cement which binds t_] whole moral edifce together, without whidf power, goodness, intellect, truth, happina, love itself, can have no permanence; but i| the fabric of existence crumbles away -Oil under us, and leaves us at last sitting in tq midst of ruin, astonished at oar our.; desolation. —[Mrs Jameson. A Heartfthat Can Feel for Another.-11 \ give and bequeath to Mary, my wife, tilt f sum o' one hunder' pounds a year,' said _fl old farmer. 'Is that written down, measterf; —' Yes,' replied the lawyer ; ' but she is not so old, she may marry again. Won't yoi; make any change in that ease ? Most people! do.'—'Ay, do they?' said the fanner,j ' Well, write again, and say that if my will marries again, I will give and bequeath to her the sum of two hundred' pounds a yea. § That'll do, won't it, measter ?'—' Why, ift just doubling the sum she would have-ii; remained unmarried,' said the lawyer,"ifta generally the other way—the legacy ii lessened if tho widoAV marries again.'—'Ay, . said the farmer, ' but him as gets herl deserve it.' ! A little darkey was recently found sroi ing on the step of a fashionable house, w| far from Saratoga, crying pitifully. ' Whiti. de matter wid you V asked a coloured wonw 'Matter nuff; double trouble all ober«;.. house. Fader am druag— mudder hab got! home wid clozes—sis broke de looking-glaa, with de broom-stick—de baby got her eytt full of kyan pepper, and little Ned-Antoij! put de mustard on de hair for goose-greasj I put salt in my tea for white anger, audi makes me sea-sick. De dog licked Ne% face, and got his mouth full of mustard, m lies under de bed a hawlin. De kitten 0 her head in de milk pot, and I cut her heart off to sabe de pitcher, and den I Mb™ break the pitcher to gee de head out, and M way I'll get licked when mudder coffla home, for setting the bed on afire, wiU ».

a sin.' . A fan to Fan, although a gift not great, | I fancy may be deemed appropriate; > For when you're fanning, Fannie, doyonsee,! You'll have to think of your warm faena. A country girl, not highly educated saidto her Sunday friend ' There's such an» gentleman dining up stairs to-day. Avas a-talking about the Akkadeury, M&fl hedidn'b tellher as he could see she p»W»J so she do and every night j but he neeoni | said it afore people. .J Albert Smith used to say, »*"?■? is the art of pleasing the public, ana who can is sure to be called a some one else who can't.' Not a badae tion as things go. . ju;. ' I have seen swaying lily-like aboUt,y churn a beauty more perfect than « p which bloomed full-grown from the ffiffl of the sea's ecsfcactic travil,' is the w»y ■;■_, Indian: »oolis reporter began a column scription of a dairy girl. They soaKeo head, and at la3b accounts he Ava3 better., The Atlantic is the only power on "J that can make a Avoman indifferent w> personal appearance. -__sJj

Printed and Published by the ProPj^'pTinU Brett, of Parnell, at hi 3 General a^ m.LiMU:' Office, Wyndhaui-streefc, in the City of Auvr*-« New Zealand : - , IMI Saturday, October 7,1879.

EVENING STAR SUPPLEMENT, OCTOBER 7, 1876.