O _.. r. 5 3 THE MISSOURIAN iu_icAziNI~:. DECEMBER 13. 1924 E» Tapping C""€"E”‘°€’_}? Ge0’0gi¢.P“3i ° ‘. _——._.;T a Not only do millions of years lie behind us in time. but the evidence of millions of years of life lie beneath Columbia. “ re are some wells in Columbia 1200 feet deep.” commented Dr. E. B Branson of the ge- ology department of the University. “If they had been dug three or four hundred feet deeper. they would have struck granite. going through rocks that were all laid down in the seas." On that granite foundation lies Columbia's geologic history. ° en .t sea "came over 51. only animals of very. low classes lived in its waters. There were none o so high an order as fishes, says Doctor Branson.” On land there were no plants. or if they were present. they were only those living in stagnant waters. The seas retreated and advanced ten or twelve times. _When they receded for the last time from this _ by Missourians. perhaps fifty’ millions of years after that first inunda- tion. there were left great swampy expanses. n and now we burn-the great scouring rashes and , club mosses that grew fifty to :1 hundred feet high and five to six feet in diameter. besides other immense plants'tbat grew here millions of years ago. the pressure of mu which was lagp laid down over these ran}; forests made mass that is now mined ogy of Missouri." Doctor Braneon has pointed out that “A striking fea- ture of th Pennsylvanian forests must have of them the compact . ln his “Geol been the k of noise in them. No birds, squir- existed. it was preserved to be tapped for the benefit of millions of human beings. -ln Mis- souri counties. boring: fail.to produce oil in paying quantities because there is not a suffi- cient thickness of porous rock to serve as reser- voir. or the overlying rocks fail to seal it so that it is not diffused. * "Since perhaps forty or fifty millions of years ago. the seas have never been over Mis- souri. except the southeast corner.” explains Doc- tor Branson. “but, between the coal-forming period and the present. there was at one time a great sea of which the shore came close to the western edge of Missouri. lt extended to the Rockies and from the Gulf -to the Arctic." On the banks of this sea. especially the west- em shores. lived the dinosaurs. some of them eighty feet long. The sea swarmed with big reptiles. Missouri, being a ‘land area at that time. was the home of those curious birds with teeth which, though they were covered with feathers._were still reptile-like. And to the have clung flying reptiles. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his “Lost World." wen,-ves into story form the strange animals of this age. The cli- mate was tropical as far north as Greenland. But. millions of years after this. there came I ‘the glaciers from the lkorth. They covered this state to the Missouri River and extended some’- what south o it. ver Columbia's site and still further south roamed the mammoth and .9-\"‘ / ‘l ' ’ "‘ .—-- - , I. //’4._ "..¢__¢’ ‘”_ 1 '. ' - a - , . »- "’ - -, ,. I-.4,(,,"":_-.--_v-_, -V j- u _ y. - . F’ 20» L: ‘ I ‘l‘t‘lr'. or other of the animals ‘with voi-~e.~. 1l\'('(l at that time." liven the inserts were of the 1'-ilent types. llow fortunate that coclgroaclies are not not. five inches long, as they were in that gigantic age; and there were dragon flies with a wing spread of twenty-nine inches. lt is from the deposits of jhis l’cnn:-.ylvanian period that moist of the oil and gas of Okla- homa and Kansas come. probably resulting from the.d£-composition of fatty matter of plants and animals. Generated-under the mud that formed non-porous shales, in these long age.-,4 before man ,.__-__..._.-- _.__4.-. .... --- “Can the blind lead the blind?" They can. and they are the best leaders. is the opinion which is coming to be held by social workers. A blind person understands the difficulties and the mental state of the blind better than one who has eight. _ O. .. Jones, of the Central Missouri Voca- tional Training School for the Blind. who teaches a ‘class of adult blind in Columbia. has been in the world of darkness for fifteen years. But the world of things has not passed out of existence for him. He sees it through his fingers and ears. This incident will show how much one who is blind can see One'of the students here brought to a meet- ing fif the class a number of baskets he had made. One of them was a peculiar shape, such that extending out at one side was a ‘sort of little shelf. This was a sewing-basket. and the shelf. so the maker later explained; “was to putyour shears in so they won't get all tangled ‘up with your thread." This basket along with the others was handed to Mr. Jones for his ex- amination. lle ran his fingers over it lightly. and then said with a laugh. “Why. Jim. what's this you have here—a._coal'bucltet?" The term described excellently the shape of the basket. A waste . was only partly completed. Mr. Jones felt of it carefully and then told the maker what was right and where ' niatterwithyour razor!" Ilr. pa. Joheaaahed. Ilr3a.Joua says that her ahaveshhnsdlevu-y nuisance. lalnsafionndedthe Central llisanuri Vo- ' 1021. ’ gm z5s‘i2...;., 15.5.... Life mil... 31225;‘ O llliiélfviltbll. animals .~n:n--wlizit like’ the v.‘-lephmzt. but larger. The rt-main.~ of several of the.-=0 gm-at animal.- were fuuzzi in swainp deposits near St-dnlin and are now in the linsmiicm of the Gt~olo;:}' Building. These great .~lv(t‘lt't0n2< ante-«late the (*xi.~tt-nce of man in America. though there were human beings in Europe and Asia in the early glacial stages. it may be that man lived on this continent by the time of the later glacial stages; for there were five dis- tinct ice advances. l-Zvidences of this last great age before man pupils regularly because of bad roads, and there was consequently delay in the progress of his pupil» lie conceived the idea of having them come to Jefferson City for several months dur- in)? the worst of the winter. The school met first in a basement in Jefferson City. E. L. Snyder. head of the Vocational Department of the State Board of Education. and Sam Baker. who was state superintendent of schools then. became interested in thee.-orl»; Mr. Jones was Ilflifilh and sent him several vocational students. "I am a Democrat." Mr. Jones says. "but I am certainly glad hlr. Baker was elected governor. lie lle was the first vice-president of the Associa. tinn of- the Blind when it was organized seven years ago." . Mr. Jones teaches. besides basket-making. fut!-“‘¢’3|“inlz. the reading of both Moon type and Braille. and the.writing of Braille. Mrs. Jones teaches Lvpewritinx in the school in Jetrei-son Cit '. One of his pupils at present is a convict in thg Sm“ P°"iWn“”'Y- called “Sunshine." “I-‘or hi; first lesson.” Mr. Jones said, “1 an . page to read. expecting when I visited him . in he would have read only a few lines of it and then become discouraged. as 1; ,0 03¢, “*5 - 3°! to my Ilmirise. he had read not °"l_{_‘:hIt .1 had Isssianed him. but two ‘may’. D _....__g _.- _:_.._-:._..._. ..._ » was may be seen in and near ('olumbi:i. in gla- cial boulders and markings on bedrorl. scratched by the movement of glaciers. 'Dhrn~ are some glacial boulders on the lawn of the Sigma Chi fraternity house at University and (‘allege ave- nues and Dean R. J. McCaustland'.~ l‘.01J.-‘r, 308 Hicks avenue. is faced with em. One of the latest noticeable geologic move. ments in Missouri was the New Madrid mirth- qualte of 1911. one of the severest that ever af- fected the United States. Other earti-zqualze tremors have been felt in Columbia. said Ii.-ctor Branson, but they were only slight. These deposits of past geologic ages lltdi un- derlie Columbia are now being 4::-aduall;.' \vo'm away by the action of our streams. The limb- son has cut away all the wide valley in ui.~ich. it flows and humble little Flat Branch ha.» t.'ii.en its tons and tons of cart . for it has It uitle valley, too. The smaller streams cits‘ tL'u~ir tribute into the Missouri, and it takes it '.".\l'l heavy toll. , As the Missouri River casts its burdez: Zlllo the Mi:-sissippi. Boone County soil is utt-zidily carried away to the Gulf of Mexico. I"-:){ill'.“ County‘; surface is lowered in this way only a foot in 5,000 years and that seems a long time in comparison with the span of a human life: but to a geologic age what is 5.000 yum.-‘.’ .\lerel_\' a fraction of the time spent in the gum’. changes ill a get-logical period that someuttr in a futtire age might sum up in a parsigmili or two. e . . A section of the llroun'a Station . anticline twelie mile.-. north of ('0- and (‘hole-au limestone». for‘ about l:'i0 feet from the top. These lime- stones contain no porous l'0(l-.~ to act as oil reservoirs and arc nul capped by ll'!‘l|){'T\’lO|ls rock Iv lmid the oil if any were pr:-sent. ‘Int .*'_\lanmre sandstone. In-luv. the ( hou- feau. is only about one fuzn thirl. and does not form at good I't‘~('r\‘0i'. l‘3i§¢'-“- H1‘ is one of the iiiust apt ptipils l Ezzzvc. "The hardest problem :i tezieln-r of tllv htznd has to face." Mr. Jones said, “is to -.:-.'ercuu:.~- the- discouragemt-nt of the persons who hz-.\-: lost their sight. They feel that there is nothing left 70!‘ Shem." It is the task of this man to «int-er and. heat-ten his pupils. This is the gr.:ite.<.t drain of strength of the teacher, 13.,‘ Mt ,_I._..-mes meets the difficulty cheerfully and with courage, 3-‘ YOU 9331301 doubt when you .500 him teaching "1 Pupil One woman whom he is teaching to read complained that she had such pains in her head and eyes that she could not study. ‘'It seems l can't do anything since 1 lost my .-iziit." she said plaintively. Mr. Jones encourage.’ her. told her what others had done. and soon hizi her working on her lenon. Mr. Jones take: in active part in the w--lfare worlt for the blin in this state. He and Mrs. J°"°5 flmpaiirned for the first anti-ndnient to the Constitution of Missouri rt-lzrtive to the blind. the amendment which provide.- that nothing in the constitution shall prt-vent the I‘°3i5l‘"“"9 ‘Wm tfrflfltinil pensions in the hlmd. “*3 hf31P€d write the second amendment to the ‘~'°"5'-‘W’-5°.n relative to the blind which ]iYu\‘ldi‘S the manner and amount of the blind pen.-i-.n., ‘ 9 I-rues all over Jefferson City by himself. "9 9°95 ‘-0 F’-1110b. Russelville and (Taliforiiia. me too closely in Jefferson City. After I lost my sis“: 1 was in Barnes Hospital in St.’ Louis o . Jo City. He and another blind man had been pru- ¢M It In committee meeting. It was about 10330