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Show IS BUILT Oh' FOSSILS. PECULIAR CONSTRUCTION OF ' NEW YORK CHURCH. Walls a Mass of Petrified Twigs and Leaves Material Taken from the Dcd of a Prehistoric Lake Hard as Granite. There Is n church InillillnR In Mum-ford, Mum-ford, N. Y which Is built of fossils, Arclilteetnvally It Is of modern type, with long, slim windows nnil n ground plan llko Hint of Trinity In Uoston. At (list glance tlio walls nppear to lie constructed of rough sandstone smeared with an uneven coatltiK of gritty, conrso plaster; but n cloBcr view reveals Uio error of this first conclusion. Instead of plaster tlio eyes behold traceries of dellcato leaves, lacowork of Interwoven twigs, bits of broken branches, fragments of mossy bnrk, splinters of wood, nil preserved against tlio wasting of thno and decay by being turned Into the hardest of flinty limestone. s a matter of fact, overy block of tono In the four walls Is a closely co-nuntid co-nuntid muss of dainty fossils. There is no bawic rock at all, but only fossil fibers, which give the rock cohesion and Htrengtli. The blocks were hewn from the petrified dopths of a nearby cedar awnmp. Mumford is situated in tho heart of tho grent niea of rock onco In tho bed of an ocean, known to geologists as tho Niagara limestone. Northeast of the villngo Is a dense grove of cedars. As one approaches It the clean lime rocks dip suddenly and give way to a wide and long level of dark, bluelsh-gray muck, onco be-ond be-ond doubt the bottom of a prehistoric lake. The wholo groo and undoubtedly the muck land nro on a bed of thick white rock, which looks, more than anything else, like lmmcnso Bllces of Itonuefort cheese. Its coloration Is much tho name, nnd It has a similar tendency to crumblo when taken fresh from the quarry depths Into tho upper air. A elope examination shows why this Is so Ku'ry particle of tho rock's mass Is mado up of tho petrified cedar leaves, branches, twigs, broken bark and even wholo stumps and knots, wolded nnd knit together Into one denso tangle. As theso parts of tho trees fell, ono layer upon another, they wero saturated saturat-ed with tho dampness of tho swamp and with tho limo held In solution. As the vcpetablo matter decayed nnd tho wnter evaporated, every line, fiber and grain was preserved by tho limo sediment. When this rock was first quarried .some doubt existed as to its nvall-ability, nvall-ability, for It camo to tho suifnce soft nnd crumbling. A few short hours In the sun nnd wind pioved tho error of any such fears, for tho rock rap-Idly rap-Idly hardened to a lllntlike consistency consist-ency not excelled by tho toughest granite. The rock wns sawed In blocks sult-ablo sult-ablo for tho masons' use, with one surface rough and broken as It came from the quarry. This rough surface wns laid outside by the builders, to that the walls of tho church exhibit thl. ancient vegetation In rough nnd bold relief. In many places whole stumps set out. nil of thorn perfectly preserved in t lit ir minutest dotnils. One, In particular, par-ticular, on tho south wall, Is attached to tho rest of tho block by Its two ends, and between It and the undor Muuce thiro is an Inch of daylight. New York Tribune |