Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-07-19
Prof. Denton's Fourth Lecture.

The lecturer commenced by point
ing out the sandstone formations in
this country. This formation con-
tains very few fossiliferous remains.
We find few indications of animal
life here. Impressions in great guam
titles are found in the valley Of the
Connecticut. The remains of one
hundred and nineteen varieties of the
been indicated in the slabs of sand
stone-some of enormous size. Birds
that must have stood twelve feet high
and weighed four to eight hundred
pounds; the feet of frogs eighteen
been nearly as large as elephants;
lizard feet, fifteen inches long; re-
markably strange forms of animals in
that period. From the reptiles came
the birds; there was then link be-
tween them. The lecturer pictured
scenes which We're likely to exist be-
tween those terr BILE ere ltures. Had
we not found these impressions, we
should know but little of these ages.
In the sandstone deposits for the first
time We find mammals. Just as we
find the linking forms between reptiles
and birds, so here we find the linking
forms between birds and mammals.
So we shall find linking forms be-
tween beasts and man. Not many of
these linking forms exist now. "My
lecture tonight is the age of reptiles
and he represented from his charts
the forms of the various monsters that
must have existed in this period.
Monsters with jaws seven feet long;
others with eyes thirteen inches in di-
ameter; some must have been sixty
feet long - those which could fly,
walk, jump, swim, live out of water
or under water, and adapted to all
conditions of life. If man could have
looked down upon the scenes transpir-
ing upon the earth then, he would
have witnessed sights too horrible to
paint. But these monsters had to
exist that we might exist. They, in
the economy of God, came along in
the history of our planet. When the
earth was good for reptiles, it was not
good for vegetable growth. When it
was good for birds, it was not good for
reptiles. When it was good for
beasts, it was not good for birds and
when it was good for man, it was not
good for beasts. This is poor age for
beasts, but a good age for man. The
earth will be getting better for man
and poorer for everything else. 1t was
made for man, for his development,
his advancement. Here we see the
importance of the study of geology.
Above this formation we find the Gre
taceous or chalk formations. Science
until recently has not been able to
fathom this interesting deposit. There
is no real chalk or flint on this conti-
nent. Shells by millions are found in
this formation, and it is from what we
find deposited in, or the impressions
made on the formations, that we can
determine the age of the formation
and follow the changes in, and the rise
of animal life from the lowest order to
man In the interior of the continent,
in Colorado, which was once the bot
tom of the ocean and has been up
heaved, we find indications of mon
sters sixty or seventy feet long.
For the first time in the cretaceOus
deposits we find our present forms Of
trees.
After some feeling comments on the
poor attention given by the citizens of
Los Angeles TO this interesting sci
ence in which all ought to be inter-
ested and teach to our children, the
lecturer announced the theme for Mon
day nights lecture, "Tne Period of
Mammals" and that for Tuesday
night, "1'he Period of Man-Our Own
Dariou -