One of the most interesting features in the study of mountains is the discovery of fossils, by which the naturalist accurately determines the age of rocks. Millions of these remains of animal and vegetable life have been preserved. Of course the tissues of flesh and drops of blood or sap are gone, but in their stead are particles of stone which have kept the form, and sometimes even the color, of the creature destroyed. Within the thickness of these stones are shells of mollusks, disks, spheres, spines, cylinders in astounding numbers; we see the skeletons of fish with their fins and scales, the wing-sheaths of insects, and even foot-prints; upon the hard rock, too, which was formerly the shifting sand of the beach, we find the impression of drops of rain, and the intersecting ripple marks traced by wavelets on the shore. These fossils, which lived millions of years ago in the mud of oceanic abysses, are now met at every mountain height. They are to be seen on most of the Pyrenees, they constitute whole Alps, they are recognized upon the Caucasus and Cordilleras.
The wealth contained in mountains in the shape of silver and gold ore and precious stones has ever been, like the magic thread of the labyrinth, leading miners and geologists into the depths of their caverns. Formerly it was supposed to be an easy matter to reach these riches. All that a man needed was what is called "luck" and the favor of the gods. Boldly seizing some opportunity, such as the rolling away of a stone from a crevice, he had but to mutter some magic words, creep into a dark passage, and find himself beneath a vaulted roof of crystals and diamonds; he needed but to stoop and gather the rubies beneath his feet. Not by chance and magic do the miners of our day reach the rich veins of minerals. Study and hard work are behind all the engineering skill which penetrates our mountains.
When the summer is here, and you go forth with merry hearts and stout staves to climb some "Saddleback" or "Mount Tom," just stop and think of all the wonderful things which happen to make a mountain; and as you glance up its wooded sides, and see the clouds resting upon its summit, or behold the purple hues of evening gathering about its majestic form, remember "the hand that made it is Divine."