Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-05-15
REMAINS OF ANCIENT ANIMALS.

monster indeed. The specimen was
found few days since, by our friend,
W: II. 3. Page, Esq, on his farm, near
this place. The fragment obtained
seems TO be the middle part of the tusk.
It is. six feet long, twenty one inches in
circumference at the large, and seven
teen inches at the smaller end, and is
nearly III the form of an arch of circle.
lthas the pure whiteness and grain of
ivory, but unfortunately its strength has
departed, and it can be broken into
pieces by the fingers. 1t was found
embedded in gravel bank where Lead
ing Greek passess through Mr.. Pages
farm. This farm, with some portion of
: the bottom adjoining it, is underlaid by
a bed of water-worn pebbles, showing
that it is of, at least comparatively, re-
cent formation. The bank of Leading
Greek, at the point where this tusk was
found, is sixty feet high, composed al
most entirely Of gravel. 1t was
embedded in this gravel, ten feet from
the surface, and lay with the bow in the
hank and both ends exposed. AS the
embankment gradually washed away by
the rains and foods, the exposed ersds of
the tusk crumbled away with it, leaving
but the middle portion.
What may have been the length of
this wonderful tusk, and the magnitude
and strength ofthe animal hich support
ed it, may be partly conceived from the di-
nensions of the portion recovered. We
have no means of forming an estimate
of how much of the larger end is lost,
but taking the circumference of the two
ends of the fragment, we find that it
tapers but one-seventh of its circumfer-
ence in six feet of length. Allowing it,
therefore, regular taper until it termi-
mates in a point, and it would give some
: thing like forty feet to that end This
is long enough for our purpose, and we
leave the Imagination of our readers to
extend it in the other direction to their
full satisfaction.
When did these gigantic animals live,
and why, and when the race became ex-
tinct, are questions for which we have no
answer. That they once lived in con-
siderable numbers throughout our
country, as we'll as other portions of the
globe, is abundantly proved by the re-
mains which are everywhere found
But their history was probably lost long
before mans began upon the earth.
That our planet has passed through
many periods, each producing it's own
peculiar species of animal and Vegetable
forms, which became extinct, and gave
place to others suited to its changing
states, and these to others still, before
man appeared upon the stage, is, we be-
iieve, the conclusion Of all scientific men
of the present day. That this Is a relic
of one of the pre-adamite races may
therefore be safely concluded.
TWAS probably contemporary with other
species of extinct animals and plants,
which could not live in the present order
of the elements, and which disappeared
gradually as the earth became fitted for
the reception of man, the end of its ere
alton. The Geologist can read the sue
cessiye orders of these animal and veg
etable forms, in the fossils scattered
through all countries; but the duration
Of these periods, whether measured by
thousands of years, or millions Of ages,
the records do not tell All he can do
to satisfy our curiosity in these respects
is, to demonstrate, that away back in the
unrecorded past, before history, before
tradition, before man, the earth produced
these formss and deposited them where
they are now being found, and studied,
and translated as the authentic docu-
ments the otherwise unchronicled ages.
Speculation might find an ample field,
and imagination abundant exercise in
treating ON themes suggested by this
relic. But We have not time, nor do we
suppose it would profit our readers to
indulge in the pleasant past-time. We
simply place upon record the finding of
the relic, and add that the curious can
see it by calling at the residence Of Mr..
Page.
THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION.
A Convention of professional Union
savers met at the city of Baltimore, on
the 7th inst, according to order, and in
less than two days performed the stupen-
dous feat of nominating John Bell, of
Tennessee, for President, and Edward
Everett, of Massachusetts,, for Vice Pres
ident.
They also s'resolved" that any plat
form they could adopt would be con-
etrued differently in different localities,
and SO they would adopt no platform