Coal, Iron, and Oil, Or, The Practical American Miner: A Plain and Popular Work on Our Mines and Mineral Resources, and Text-book Or Guide to Their Economical Development

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Benjamin Bannan, 1866 - 808 Seiten
 

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Seite 65 - ... that has risen to the surface in pursuit of its prey, or when a sudden breeze stirs the hot air, and shakes the fronds of the giant ferns, or the catkins of the reeds. The wide continent before us is a continent devoid of animal life, save that its pools and rivers abound in fish and mollusca, and that millions and tens of millions of the infusory tribes swarm in the bogs and marshes.
Seite 58 - ... shivered into millions of minute particles, and, being thrown back into the air, fell in showers of sand on all the surrounding country. The coast was extended into the sea for a quarter of a mile, and a pretty sand beach and a new cape were formed. Three hills of scoria and sand were also formed in the sea, the lowest about two hundred and the highest about three hundred feet.
Seite 64 - ... bright on the upper boughs of the tangled forest beyond, not a ray penetrates the more than twilight gloom that broods over the marshy platform below. The rank steam of decaying vegetation forms a thick blue haze, that partially obscures the underwood. Deadly lakes of carbonic acid gas have accumulated in the hollows, there is...
Seite 64 - It resembles a gigantic star-fish, or an immense coach-wheel, divested of the rim. There is a green, dome-like mass in the centre, that corresponds to the nave of the wheel, or the body of the star-fish ; and the boughs shoot out horizontally on every side, like spokes from the nave, or rays from the central body. The diameter considerably exceeds forty feet ; the branches, originally of a deep green, are assuming the golden tinge of decay ; the cylindrical and hollow leaves •stand out thick on...
Seite 64 - ... growth, that will be covered two seasons hence with flowers and fruit. That strangely-formed organism presents no existing type among all the numerous families of the vegetable kingdom. There is an amazing luxuriance of growth all around us. Scarce can the current make way through the thickets of aquatic plants that rise thick from the muddy bottom ; and though the sunshine falls bright on the upper boughs of the tangled forest beyond, not a ray penetrates the more than twilight gloom that broods...
Seite 109 - Made the experiment of burning the common stone coal of the valley, in a grate, in a common fire-place in my house, and find it will answer the purpose of fuel, making a clearer and better fire at less expense than burning wood in the common way.
Seite 607 - Judea and the southern shore of the Black Sea, were the most celebrated, and especially excelled in the manufacture of Steel. The Greeks appropriated the name of that country to designate Steel of the best quality ; and our own vocabularies still retain a synonym derived from that source. The "northern Iron" mentioned by Jeremiah, and the "bright Iron" of Ezekiel, in which the Tyrians traded, were probably the product of that country— "the mother of Iron...
Seite 64 - ... growth, and lost himself amid a forest of corn fifty feet in height ? The lesser vegetation of our own country, its reeds, mosses, and ferns, seem here as if viewed through a microscope ; the dwarfs have sprung up into giants, and yet there appears to be no proportional increase in size among what are unequivocally its trees. Yonder is a group of what seem to be pines — tall and bulky...
Seite 21 - ... pounds avoirdupois, travel with this 150 yards up the slope of the coal below ground, ascend a pit by stairs 117 feet, and travel upon the hill 20 yards more to where the coals are laid down. All this she will perform no less than twenty-four times as a day's work...
Seite 638 - Two bright rods of l$-inch in diameter will be found on the table. They were folded up cold under the hammer. This extremely tough metal is made by using Mr. Henderson's alloy in lieu of spiegeleisen, which is incapable of making steel of such a quality. A Prussian gentleman, M. Preiger, has been also successful in manufacturing...

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