The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-02-05
The Cardiff Giant.

AlR. EDITOR Having had occasion To visit
this Syracuse wonder, your readers may be IN
terested in the conclusions formed, as in the char
acter of the relic. That theory must prevail
which naturally accounts for the most facts in the
case.
Ii was discovered last month, Oct. 18th, in
Cardiff, a village of Onondaga county, New York,
aud has attracted an almost unprecedented amount
of public interest, having brought at once fame and
fortune to PERSONS hitherto obscure. The figure
is life-like, except in dimensions, measuring ten
feet and several inches in length. The position
is rerfectly natural, that OF a man reclining lightly
on the right side, with the right hand extended
over the abdomen, and the left out of sight under
the body. The left foot and leg rest upon the
others. and the toes are somewhat opened, as of
a man in pain. In form and outline the figure is
almost perfect, representing a gigantic man of ad-
mirable muscular proportions. The countenance
inspires an irresistible feeling of awe in the mind
of the spectator, which, in its serene and dignitied
repose, stimulates sleep, rather than death. The
head is Of a pure Caucasian type, and the brain
massive and Websterian. The nose, though six
inches long. is by no means prominent; and a
dimple marks q handsome chin. From the posi-
ton Of the limbs, the figure could not be made to
stand as an ordinary statue, TO which circum-
stance is doubtless due its preservation. An up
right statute would not have been likely to have
remained long undisturbed in a wilderness. But
who made it? Whence did it come? Nobody
can solve the sphinx-like riddle. Two notions
prevail that it is either a petrifactlon, or sculpt-
ure. It's weight is set down at 299O lbs! One
of the tallest of men is said to have been Il certain
O'Brien, who was exhibited in the last century
l7S4-in England. His stature is reported to
have been eight feet. 50 Button, b" according to the
New American Cyclopedia, 9 admits fifteen an
thenticated cases of gigantic men. One of these
was Hans Bar, eIeUen feet high, whose likeness,
drawn in 1850, of full size, remained at the i'm
perial castle at Innspruck. A Hungarian foot
soldier of the Archduke Ferdinand is mentioned,
who attained the sam stature ; and his likeness
remains in the Ambrosia cabinet at Vienna. The
Cardiff relic was found at a depth Of about three
feet, in a low, wet piece of ground, where Il
farmer was digging for a well near his barn.
The foot first appeared, and then a leg. Water
has evidently acted powerfully in discoloring and
decomposing portions Of the body. DIR. Boyton,
the g~eologist, asserts that { it is not a fossil, but
was cut from a piece Of stratifed sulphate of lime
known as the Onondaga gypsum. If it were pull
verified or ground, a farmer would call it plaster.
1t was quarried, probably, somewhere in this
country, from oar gypsum beds. There is perfect
harmony in the different proportions of the differ
ent parts of the statue. The features are strictly
Caucasian, having not the high bones of the
Indian type, neither the outlines of the negro;
and being entirely unlike any statuary of Aztec
or Indian origin. The chin is magnificent and
generous the eyebrows, or superciliary ridge, is
we'll arched the mouth is pleasant; the brow
and forehead are noble" The writer adds that
- some portions of the features would remind one
of the bust of Dewitt Clinton, and others of the
Napoleonic type Before seeing his statement. l
had come to something Of the same conclusion.
That theory must prevail which naturally accounts
for the most facts in the case. 1 give mine for
what is worth.- OccidcRt.