The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-07-18
HoFRMANs FOSSIL.
FROM lhe ,.crulae Of llle Betsgy. y

j
Thomas Campbell when asked for toast in society
of authors gave the memory OF Napoleon Bonaparte,
significantly adding che once hung bookseller On
nearly similar principle would be disposed to propose
among gcoogsts grateful bumper In honor OF the rev.
olutionary army that beseged Maestricht That city,
some seventy eighty years ago had its jealous
naturalist in the person Of NJ Hoffman, dilgent exca-
in the quarres of ST Peters mountain long ceie-
bated for its extraordinary Fossils Geology as science
had no existence at the time but Hoffman was doing
in quiet way all he could to give 1t beginning he
transferring from the rock to his cabinet Shells and
coas and crustcca and the teeth and scales OF fishes
with now and then the vcrebre and now ana then te
limb bone of reptile. And as he honestly rcmunefated
all the women he employed and did no manner OF harm
to any ono, needed him. On one evcntfu morn
ing, however his friends the qearres laid bare most
extmordi ay fossithe oocpita plates OF an enormous
saurian with jaws four and half feet long bristng
with teeth like ceraux de s; and after Hoffman,
who got the block In which IL hay elnbedsd cut out en-
tire and transferred TO his house. had spent week after
week painfully relieving it from the mass all Macs
tricht began speak OF it something really wonderful
There is cathedral st Peters mountain noun
tain itself Is church landand the lazy con awakened
by the general talk, laid claim TO poor Hofmanns won
derfu fossil his property. He lord OF the manor,
he said and the mountain and all that 1t contained
belonged to him. Hofimann defended his fossil as
he best could In an expensive lawsut but the judges
found the law against him the huge reptile head was
declared to be treasure trove escheat to the lord OF
the manor and Hoffman,, half broken-hearted with
but his labor and the lawyers bills for his pains it
transferred by rude hands from its place in his
TO the residences of the gmsping churchman The huge
fossil head experienced the fate of Dr. ChamerBs two
hundred churches Holman philosopher, however,
and he continued to observe and collect rs before but
he found such another fossil and at length in the
midst of his ingenious abors the vital energies failcd
within him. and he broke down and died. The useless
canon lived The French revolution broke out the
republican army invested Maesticht the batteries were
opened and shot and shell fell thick the devoted city
But in especial quarter there alghted neither shot
nor shell. All safe around the canons house Orr
binary relics would have avaled him nothing in the
circumstance not .the three kings of Cologne,
had he possessed the three kings entire the jaw bones
Of the eleven thousand virgins " but there virtue
in tho jaw bones of the Mosasaurus and safety in their
neighborhood. The French sdvdns, like all the other
sarans Of Europe had heard of Hofnanns fossil and
the French artillery had been directed to play wide of the
place where 1t lay Maesricht surrendered the fossil
WINS found secreted in vau and sent away to the Jd
des Ptes at Paris maugre the canon, to delight there
the heart of Cuvier; and the French, generously ad
dressing themselves to the heirs of HOFFMAN, as its legid
mate owners made to them considerable sum OF
money MS its price, They reversed the finding of the
Maestricht judges and all the monks of ST. Peters
have acquesced in the Justice Of the decision.